Name drain

Last night I was reading Pink is the New Blog when I discovered that Britney Spears didn't name #2 Sutton Pierce after all - he's really a Jayden James. (Or J.J. to the family; after all, remember, she's country.) I was totally fascinated by this bit of news. Probably because, lately at our house, there has been a lot of baby name discussion going on.

This really is a new experience for us. With Liam, we knew we were having a boy, and we had picked out his name in a movie theatre years earlier. All that was required was a check-in to make sure we were both still on board circa 2005. There was a bit of back-and-forth on his middle name, but we both knew that we liked Harrison from the start, and no matter what other suggestions were lobbed out, we always went back to it. We never had a backup name in case he didn’t look like a Liam, and we never chose a girl’s name. The whole thing was really a non-event.

I still find boys' names to be easy. If we wind up having another boy, we think we have a name. It's been on the table for a long time, since before we found out #2 was on the way, and I don't see it changing over the next few months (...though of course I reserve the right to change my mind at any time up until that government paperwork is filled out!) If we have a girl though... which we all know I am expecting... then I am stumped. I still have a hard time seeing myself having a girl, so it feels weird to me to be considering girls' names. Girls' names are so girly. I know that's the point, but I can't get used to it. And, just to be difficult, I am also very much against androgynous names. You will not catch me naming my child Riley and having every person who sees their name in writing scratching their head and wondering if it's a boy or a girl. So the quest is on for a name that is girly enough, but not too girly - a very tall order.

Then there is the matter of syllables - another anal issue rearing its ugly head. I like names that have different numbers of syllables. Maybe it's because I grew up as a Carrie Ann Robinson (2-1-3). Liam's name worked out that way too, 2-3-1. There are three current frontrunners for girls' names. One is 3 syllables, one is 2, one is 1. I don't know if I like 1 with Cook, because then it's 1-x-1, but 95% of the time it would just be 1-1; let's face it, middle names are rarely used, except for when you are graduating or getting married (or getting into trouble). (To Chad, of course, 1-1 is perfect!) The middle name I like for 3 is actually 4; is 3-4-1 too much of a mouthful? Chad doesn't like 4 as much as I do, so maybe it won't end up mattering.

Our front-running first names are wildly different. We are not debating between Emma and Emily, for instance. I’m talking different letters, different origins, different everything. I want something middle of the road - not top 10 popular, and not something so unique that we make up ourselves. (Though I’m surprised by how many people haven’t heard of Liam before, given that it is something like #16 for boys in Canada, and all of the girls’ names we’re looking at are a lot more uncommon than that.) I say I like traditional names rather than modern, but a lot of traditional names are so overused now as to be boring. I want something that is simple and a little bit quirky at the same time, but something that won’t get my child singled out or picked on for being weird. Luckily, I think my idea of quirky is a lot less so than most parents’ these days, so whatever we pick I think will still be considered safe. Also, Chad and I have pretty similar opinions on what we do and do not like. It’s not so much that we are arguing about it as just having a hard time facing it together.

Middle names are another issue. We have 3 frontrunner first names and a list of maybe 10 more that are up for consideration, but none of them sound good together in any combination, so I am looking at middle names that I would never use as first names, just because they do sound good together. Which, when you think about it, is a pretty backwards way to do it. I am still waiting for inspiration to strike with a name that is just as beautiful as the first name we have chosen, that also sounds good when paired together.

Heck, I am still waiting for inspiration to strike with the first name, that a-ha! moment, the one when Chad says, What about... and I say It's perfect! - and the search ends there. I just don't know that that will happen. We have the big ultrasound next week, and I think we’re going to try to find out if it’s a boy or a girl, provided that all else seems well. If for no other reason, I think I need to find out the gender in order to eliminate 50% of the naming what-ifs. I find all of this totally exhausting.