When we were pregnant with Joseph, we struggled over girl names. The boy name was easy - Joseph Henry after Chad's grandfathers, one of whom had recently passed away, the other who Chad felt very close to. When we found out Joseph was a boy, all naming decisions were over. Easy peasy.
This time around, we started tossing around ideas for girl names when we found out we were pregnant. We were pretty sure the baby was a girl. (Chad's just that organized. No. Really.)
We narrowed it down to:
Eleanor
Penelope
Elizabeth
Violet
While I love the name "Violet", I wasn't too fond of her potential initials. VD?
Side note: Chad says I'm showing my age because VD is rarely used except by old fogies like us.
I really liked "Penelope", but Chad felt there were too many connections to pigs. (Personally, I think it sounds very...Grecian and I love the nickname "Penny".)
We both like Elizabeth, but it seems like more and more little girls are being named that and as much as I like traditional names, I don't want a popular name. I thought that left Eleanor - a name I adore. Little Ellie. Little Nora. How sweet.
Except Chad doesn't like it. At all. He thinks it sounds hard.
Our criteria?
We want a strong name that's not in the top fifty of the Top 100 list.
I want a name that's traditional, with a common spelling that can be shortened but is not the shortened form of a name. (How many times have I had to say, "No. Mandy is my full name, not Amanda"?)
The initials have to work. For instance, I'm not going to name a little girl Olivia Day and have the poor thing be stuck with "ODD" as a monogram.
Soooo...back to the drawing board. Names are such a huge responsibility. It's the first "gift" a parent gives a child and it's something that can really impact their lives. This is tough. *drums fingers on the table*
5 comments:
Clementine!
Ahhh...I remember those days... =) Sounds like you're searching for something similar to my little Evelyn, you've got Eve or Lyn or E for short. It a traditional, no fuss name. So far no one's misspelled it or mispronounced it (my woes with having a name like Luella). Here I thought Evelyn would be perfect because it's traditional and not used very often. The one thing I didn't count on...being Asian. Evelyn in VERY common in Asian countries...oh well. So here's a couple of suggestions as you count down the weeks and hopefully have a name by the time the babe's born. =) Angelica (although this brings to mind the bratty Rugrat character) so let's say Angela, Emily or Emelia, or Daphne?
Alexandra
Samantha
Those would be my 2 favs, just looking at 51-100 of the list you posted :)
Good luck! It is a hard choice. We are exactly opposite you. Before we knew Zach was a he, we had our girl name. Took a long time to agree on a boy name. Although, when I was pregnant with Hannah, it was kind of sad not to have that unknown and searching for names.
How about Gertrude? Sissy (like Sissy Spacek) or Oprah? She ROCKS the book club!!
Those are good suggestions! Keep 'em coming. At some point, I'm sure SOMEthing will hit us as The Name.
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