Discussing what name we want to give our baby boy has definitely been one of the most fun things about being pregnant! It’s not something Ryan and I chat about daily, but it comes up a lot, especially since we didn’t go into this pregnancy as one of those couples who already has names picked out ahead of time. Sure, it’s something we’ve talked about in the past, but it was never a super serious discussion until now.
We’ve been given one piece of advice from numerous couples time and time again: Once you settle on a name, do not share it with everyone you meet. This will open you up to feedback and opinions and can potentially strip some of the joy away from finding your perfect name.
I love this advice and though my secret-keeping abilities rank at a two on a scale of one to 10, Ryan and I are going to try to keep our little one’s name under wraps until after he’s born. Realistically, we’ll probably share his name with some people very close to us, but I can also see us not totally committing to a name until after we meet our baby. I feel like I may have to meet him before I could really know what name truly suits him.
In the meantime, we’ve been having a blast brainstorming names and discussing tons of possibilities! When it comes to selecting a name, we do have a few random factors we’re taking into consideration when it comes to naming our baby (<— just our personal preference) which you will find detailed below.
And if you have any fun baby naming stories, I’d love to hear about them in the comments section of this post! I’m not sure why, but I find this kind of thing super fun to talk about… I’ve heard some hilarious and heartwarming stories surrounding baby name selection that always make me smile! (Oh and if you haven’t seen the hilarious comment thread surrounding a Humans of New York story about a girl named Beyoncé, click here for a good name-related laugh!)
Our Personal Baby Name Guidelines
- Avoiding Rhyme Time
As it turns out, Fagan is last name that rhymes with a lot of names and can sound almost “sing-song-y” when paired with certain names at times. I’ve always loved the name Reagan for a girl and after Ryan and I got engaged, I realized I’d never have a little Reagan… though Ryan said if we ever have a girl we should totally name her Reagan Megan Fagan. YES! Haha!
I’m also funny about names that end in “an” with Fagan which is kind of crazy because I’ve never thought of Ryan’s name clashing with Fagan and it falls into that category. Maybe it doesn’t bother me since it doesn’t rhyme at all?
- Paying Attention to Initials
I knew a girl in high school with the initials A.S.S. and always felt horrible for her! Fortunately there aren’t many three letter words that end in F that we have to work around, so I feel pretty safe on this front!
- Family Names
Neither Ryan nor I have any names in our family that have a long-standing tradition of being passed down from generation to generation. I do love the idea of giving our little guy a middle name that has some sort of family significance, but we’re still chatting about this one and go back and forth on middle names all the time. And no, Baby O’Fagan isn’t a real contender. Haha!
- Nothing Too Trendy
You know the cutesy names you see popping up all over your Facebook feed? We’re trying to avoid anything like that. Both of us like classic names, but we also love names that aren’t too traditional – striking a balance between something that feels current but not too trendy or old fashioned can be tough!
- Nothing Too Popular
We’ve ruled out any names we’ve seen on current “most popular baby names” lists even though there are quite a few boy names we both love that have become very popular over the past few years. (Liam and James are two names I personally adore!) Actually, one of the names up for consideration for our baby’s middle name is on this list, so…
- Easy to Say and Spell
Ryan and I both have very easy names. They’re easy to say and easy to spell (well, unless you’re a certain Starbucks barista – I’ve been “Jewlie” and “July” before) and we both appreciate the fact that we’ve never really had names that we’ve had to repeat over and over again for someone to understand them after we introduce ourselves. We’d like something similar for our little one!
Question of the Morning
- Do you have any fun baby name stories to share? I’d love to hear them!
- For the parents: Did you share your baby’s name with people ahead of time?
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I used to get so angry when expecting couples wouldn’t share the baby’s name! I thought, “we’re all going to find out eventually, what’s the big deal about telling us now or later?!” THEN I got pregnant. I started telling people we planned on naming our son Henry, which I consider a pretty normal, traditional name, ya know? Boy did we get some comments. “Is that a family name?!” Aka the only reason you could possibly be choosing THAT name is because it’s a family name! Or “seriously? Well we will love him no matter what his name is.” Yes, people actually said these things. And if they didn’t show their disgust through words, you could see it written all over their face! Obviously not everyone reacted like this, but I was enough people for me to choose to keep the name mostly under wraps this time for baby #2! I think you’re doing the right thing!
I LOVE the name Henry! I feel ya though, we are naming our daughter Liesl and have gotten some very rude comments! I just smile and say I loved the movie The Sound of Music : )
Oh my gosh I’ve LOVED the name Liesl since I was a little girl b/c of that movie! I think it’s so pretty!
we’ve heard similar horror stories from couples and after sharing some of the names we really like with people and getting some not-so-fun reactions at times, we are definitely going the more secretive route, too!
That’s exactly how we are about choosing a name! We didn’t want anything popular. I’ve always loved the movie The Sound of Music and grew up watching it over and over. So naturally we picked out a name from the movie, Liesl. Plus both of us are if German heritage : ) it just felt right.
I think baby naming is fun, but hard too! 1. Name them the name you want to call them. My hubs really wanted a William but that is his name so my son would go by his middle name. William Spencer and go by Spencer. He is Kinder now and you would think that people have never had folks go by their middle name. Its annoying to explain.
2. We had my daughters name picked for months, Harper Mae I am a good southern mama and Monogrammed EVERYTHING! We shared her name for that purpose too. Two days before she was born, Victoria Beckham had a baby with same name! I was glad we shared so people would not think I was copying her, but also said because I knew that it would go up the charts (which it did) and we could not change it.
I love the spelling “Mae” — I think that’s gorgeous!
I knew from the get-go that I would never name one of my kids with a “B” name because my last name starts with a “J.” My husband and I love being in the mountains so when we realized I was pregnant with my first we had just climbed a Colorado 14er Kit Carson. The name Carson stuck as it also gave him the same initials as his late grandpa which is my son’s middle name. So for our second we wanted the same sort of “meaning” so it was a lot harder to come up with something, but I think we have a winner (but it’s a secret ’til he’s born too). Good luck naming! I always felt more connected once we had a name picked out!
Okay the “B” + “J” thing made me LOL! 🙂 And I love the name Carson!
My EX’s mom’s nickname was BJ. It made me feel weird. 🙂
DEFINITELY don’t share your final pick!! I would suggest not even sharing it with family. My best friend and her husband picked a name they loved for both a girl and another for a boy (they didn’t want to find out if it was boy or girl beforehand) and her own family hated the girl name…her grandfather even said he’d pay her $1000 to not use that name if they had a girl! Besides just being shocked, she and her husband were really offended that their own family had such negative strong opinions. And trust me, the name is nothing weird or ugly. I say ‘is’ because they did have a girl and they named her that 🙂
Long story short…keep it between you and Ryan!
oh my gosh!!! that’s crazy!
Agreed – we decided to name our son Logan. My mother in law HATED that name and refused to refer to him as Logan and insisted that we call him Jacob instead. It got so bad that she would refer to him as Jacob in conversations. She stopped doing it once he was born and we told her there was no going back on his name, but it really upset me for a few months.
The girl name that we picked out was Danica – my mom didn’t like it and insisted that if we had a girl, she would call her “Niki” for short.
Next time, I’m keeping my mouth shut.
My husband and I are currently trying to narrow down names for our baby boy. It might be one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. It is so permanent and will be a huge part of him for his entire life – so much pressure! Haha. We are probably going to have a few names picked out and then once he is born, see what fits him best.
It seems like every day we have friends and family texting and sending us name ideas. It can be a little overwhelming.
My step-sister and her husband didn’t settle on a name for their little boy until THREE weeks after he was born. The hospital finally forced them to make a decision so that they could complete his paperwork and birth certificate.
Yes!! The suggestions can definitely be overwhelming… especially when they’re so NOT something you’d even consider 🙂
I just had my baby girl 3 months ago! So excited for you Julie. We didn’t share her name until she was born. But told everyone we had a name(or a small list already) but we weren’t sharing it until she was born. That helped with stopping the name suggestions. They tried getting it out of us or at least a first letter. However, since we weren’t 100% sure and said we would wait to see her to officially pick.
Good job picking a name that is easy to understand and spell. Although I love my name being “Celina”. it’s also very annoying when people spell it wrong or reference the movie “Selena” every time I introduce myself. Yes, I’ve watched the movie, and no I’m not Hispanic. If I had a dollar for every time someone has asked me if I’ve seen the movie “Selena”, I probably could quit my day job. : )
Celina is such a pretty name! And don’t hate me, but I did love that movie 🙂
I loved the movie too! Nothing against the movie at all! And thanks! My name is about to get even prettier since I’ll be getting married next month. My new last name will be Michel (pronounced Meechelle). Very girly! : )
My name is Elisabeth but I’ve always gone by Betsy. I’ve never been too crazy about my nickname (people always think it is a cow name) but it doesn’t bother me so much now. I tried to go by different nicknames at various points in my life, but it never really worked. I do like that my parents gave me a name that has a TON of nicknames to chose from, though. Oh yeah, the biggest negative about being called Betsy is EVERYONE calls me Becky. Then I have to say “Betsy short for Elisabeth not Rebecca.”
YESSSS to this, from one Betsy to another! In the northeast it’s considered preppy but down south….I have had people tell me it’s a cow name, a name for trucks and an “old lady name.” What do they expect me to do about it? Also, when I’m ordering takeout, I now call myself Elizabeth because nothing rhymes with it. If I say Betsy, they hear Becky, Bethy?!, Jenny, etc.
Solidarity sister!! When I do take out I get “Stephanie” a lot. I spell it out but that does zero to help people. I’ve been Befy (really??), Bessie, Betty…I’m in the northeast but people still can’t seem to get a grasp on it. I pretty much respond to anything at this point.
YES, how could I forget Stephanie?! Sigh.
My name is Stephanie Ellen and I used to tell my Mom that I was going to marry someone with a last name that began with X. (S.E.X) She used to get so mad at me!
HA!
I’m with you on all of these points. Bad initials or rhyming names are not that fun. I’m a big fan of repeated first letters though. Something with an F? Frank? 🙂
One of my best friends just named her baby Frankie 🙂
My parents got my name from a random French commercial! You never know when inspiration will strike. 😉
I definitely say go with the not sharing route, people are much less likely to share their opinions once baby is here and already named! 🙂 We have a daughter named Raegan Grace, love her name 🙂 We always get the “oh after the president” comment..no.. it had nothing to do with politics haha
That was always my fear with the name Reagan (well, until I became a Fagan and it was no longer a contender) — no political affiliation, I just love the name! Good choice!! 🙂
When my now husband and I started dating he told me that he’s known forever what he wanted to name a son if he ever had one. When I asked what it was he said “James Todd”. I almost fell out of my chair. James is my grandpa’s name and Todd is my dad. In fact my brothers name is Todd James. I joked around and said it must be meant to be because I would have no problem with that name. However I thought it was strange that a guy would have a name picked out for his future son. I asked why he liked the name and he said “It’s LL Cool J’s real name!” LOL again I almost fell off of my chair. Fast forward to last November and the birth of our son James Todd 🙂 Depending on which one of us you ask we will give you a different reason as to why we chose James Todd but our son has several bibs and onsies that say Baby Cool J 🙂
That is so great!!
My husband and his brother actually go by their middle names. My husband’s middle name is Blair, and is his maternal grandmother’s maiden name. He is proud of his name and the connection it has to his family. His older brother, Robert Graham, was named after his father Robert. I suppose the family always called him Graham to help give him his own identity.
In thinking of naming a child, I like the idea of possibly using the middle name as a family namesake. I think it is a nice treasure to have a special connection with a name, and I love hearing peoples’ stories about their names. Maybe it’s because I don’t have one. Oh well. Have fun looking at names!
Trouble with spelling would be the worst! This must be so exciting for yall! Good luck on picking a name – and when you meet him I’m sure you’ll know 🙂
Kim
http://trendkeeper.me .. Bringing color back & get YOUR outfit featured!
My dad always said that when naming a baby think about if they were president of something someday (a bank, a civic organization, the United States–yes, you could be pregnant with the future POTUS!!!)–would the boy/girl be embarrassed to introduce themselves to somebody in that position?
And, I agree about not sharing. Not only to avoid the bad feedback, but also so there is something to surprise everyone with when he’s born!
Yes! My grandfather always says this also!! He also says not to wear PJ’s outside of the house because you ‘never know, you could run into the president’ Now i think that is stretching it, but the thought has always stuck. 🙂
Congratulations on your pregnancy and your sweet baby boy 🙂
Like you, I’m not very good at keeping my own secrets… if I have good news, I want to share it! I thought about keeping our baby’s name a secret but knew I wouldn’t be able to do it, and I also didn’t want to have to have awkward conversations about how I wasn’t telling. My husband and I ended up deciding on a name, but not telling anybody for a few weeks until we were very comfortable with it, and certain that it was the one that we wanted (if anyone asked during that time, we just told them we hadn’t decided yet). When we were sure that it was the name we wanted, we began telling people, and never had any negative experiences. There were a few people who didn’t try to hide the fact that it wasn’t their favorite name, but it didn’t bother us since we had taken enough time to get used to it and we already thought of our baby as that name. Of course you can’t pick a name that every single person likes! (And weirdly enough, the baby being born doesn’t completely stop people from telling you their opinion on his name either!) And also, we ended up with so many cute monogrammed bibs, blankets, and towels, personalized books with his name in them, and even a star named after him! I think what made the difference is telling people with a very confident attitude of “this IS his name”, not “this might be his name”. I felt that with the “maybe” attitude, people would tell us their opinions about it, but when we told them that the baby was already named, they usually didn’t feel the need to weigh in, since the decision was already made. So if you decide not to tell anybody, that’s great! You’re the parent and it’s completely up to you. But if you decide to tell, it worked out fine for us, and I definitely don’t regret it 🙂
Best wishes for a continued healthy and happy pregnancy!
I’ve yet to be in the position to name a child (one day, hopefully!), but I did promise my dad that I would name my son, if I had one, after his mother’s maiden name, Cole. It may seem trendy to some, but it actually has a lot of meaning in my family 🙂
Hah! Funny stories? I’ve got one! My mother and father had a hard time agreeing on names, my father wanted me to be named “Malin” (swedish) but my mother absolutely hated it. So my middle name is Malin bc my mother wanted to be sure that if she had a second daughter, she wouldn’t be named that either. My father thought for a very long time that she thought about him and compromised…
Ha, I love this!
Poor A.S.S!!! That couldn’t have been fun growing up! Love all your criteria..sounds perfect! Can’t wait to hear what you come up with 🙂
When my mom was born, her parents couldn’t think of a good middle name to go with her first name (Erika), so they decided to not give her one. When my sister and I were both born, my mom decided to start a tradition and not give us one either. It’s a fun little thing we all have in common! Another fun story is that my dad really wanted to name me Prudence. Thank goodness my mom nixed that idea! I love the name Gretchen and get lots of comments on it, although in school some people said it sounded like a mean witch’s name…
I’m sure you all will pick something lovely! My parents love to tell the story about my name. Throughout the pregnancy all the late 80’s ultrasounds indicated a boy so they hadn’t even thought of girls names–until surprise I was a girl! So I spent several days nameless.
Yeah we made the mistake of telling a few family members our name ideas and I immediately regretted it due to the ‘feedback’ we received. We ended up choosing a totally different name for our daughter and everyone loves it. We waited until she was 2 days old to pick her name too – we wanted to make sure it suited her. If we have more kids we’ll do the same: have 3-4 names chosen and then pick once the baby arrives!
Oh and just make sure your son’s initials aren’t WTF 🙂
That is funny!
We didn’t find out what we were having, but we decided on a girl name within weeks of finding out we were pregnant…however, the boy name was not as easy! Seriously, with how emotional I was when pregnant, we got into legit fights about it 🙂 My husband refused to move beyond names of people we already knew…I think at some point he cycled through every person he works with and every friend and cousin of us both, and then he’d throw absurd names into the mix just to make me mad (like Phidippides, the first runner of the marathon, and yes, I’m being serious here – hubby was running the Boston Marathon right around our due date!). Thankfully we “agreed” once he saw me going through labor 😛 Even more thankfully we had a girl, so didn’t even need to worry about it!
My Mom’s name was Andree (named after an Uncle) She was called everything under the sun but her name and most mail was addressed to MR. Although the name was pretty sounding it was just too confusing for people. She named me Karen. haha.
On sharing the name: My cousin just had a baby boy, named Grayson. His Mother (my aunt) dogged him about the name the entire pregnancy. Don’t share! LOL
I too wanted simple, classic easy names for my sons. Nothing to trendy. We also didn’t want any names that could be shortened we wanted them to be called by their names. We choose my first son’s name about a month before he was born, “Jack” a classic smart name. I told people who asked what the name would be and they always asked if it was short for Jackson. It would make me mad. My second son was not named until I was forced in the hospital! They told me he would be baby boy on his birth certificate if I didn’t name him! I had a hard time naming him (love him to death) but I really wanted a girl! My husband and I just threw some names around in the hospital and settled with Sean. I love the name except for we always have to spell it because there are three spellings for Sean (Shawn and Shaun). People always ask if he is named after Sean Connery, no he is not even though I am a fan of him. As for nicknames, in preschool the other kids started calling Jack “Jackie boy” I’m not sure why but it kind of stuck and to this day I still call him that quite often and he is 10! He doesn’t seem to mind it right now although he might later on! Good luck on your quest to find the perfect name!!! I love your blog and have been following it for about 4 years now. I have been wondering when you would get pregnant!
I think WTF initials would be awesome! I’m into unique names/initials because it’s always a good icebreaker or topic of conversation. My husband and I have the initials TAG and BAG and we have fun with it! I also think the middle name can be super weird and fun because you rarely use your middle name and it’s just a way to keep yourself recognizable from other people in the world with the same first and last name. 🙂
I just hope his initials are PBF 😀 😀 😀
I’ve loved all these comments but this one is the best!!
Julie! So, you and I got married on the same day, had the same honeymoon planned (and cancelled,) and my newborn baby girl’s name is Reagan! Our last name is not Fagan ;). So she promises carry it well for all of the “an” last names out there. Interested to see if your boy name ends up being what ours was. Cheers to similar tastes!
LOVEEEE THIS!
We didn’t share our name lists with anyone. My thought was, if we like it, I don’t want someone else to color my opinion, AND if people don’t like it but you’ve already named the baby, they’ll probably lie. 🙂 We didn’t know the gender, so we had a few choices for both. Once we met our girl, we knew which name to choose. I’d have a few choices ready for when you see him. 🙂
You could always name a dog Reagan!
I’ve liked the names Harrison and Ferris, but given that my last name will be Harris, those just won’t work. I think they’d be great for dogs, though. Imagine sitting in the vet’s office and hearing your dog’s name called — “Reagan Fagan,” or in our case, “Ferris Harris!”
I’m pregnant right now (35 weeks) and we told everyone our baby’s name. Well first of all…agreeing on a name, that your child will have forever, is one of the most stressful and difficult decisions I’ve ever had to make. My husband and I talked about baby names before we were even pregnant, but once we were, none of those names were on the table anymore. We thought we decided on Kennedy for awhile, but then I changed my mind. Then one night I said “how about Giuliana?” and my husband said “ehhh.” Then I said, “what if we took off the beginning and it was just Liana?” We both loved it and I said that if we still loved it next week, then we’re set. I couldn’t wait to tell people her name, but I’m not one to care too much of what people think, so if they didn’t like the name, so be it. Plus, you’ll get some adorable personalized gifts! 🙂
I’m not pregnant, but my boyfriend and I discuss our future baby names frequently. Unfortunately, my boyfriend is a teacher, and seems to be against any name that reminds him of a student…. that’s a lot of names! I’m against any names of exes, which I think makes a lot of sense.
We ended up deciding on 2 girls names, and 2 boys names, then realized that half of them are Game of Thrones characters. I didn’t even realize because I had already shot down “Tywin” and “Stanis”. I might be okay with one GOT child… not two.
This will be difficult.
Ahhh I taught high school for years and totally get the whole don’t name a baby after a student you don’t like! But it did help us narrow down our choices!
I’m a big fan of using baby mama’s maiden name as a middle name, for boys and girls! I never considered hyphenating my name or babies’ names, but when I married my husband I made my maiden name my middle name, and took his last name. So kids’ names honor both parents’ families, and if they choose to take their spouse’s name they can drop my maiden name and make their own maiden name their middle name, etc. Sure simplifies things (especially if you’re not set on a middle name)!
Haha, I have a good story.
My husband and I found out that we were having a little girl and were both SO surprised. Like we weren’t sold that it would be a boy, but I guess we never considered that there was another option? #genius
Anyway, we started tossing around girl names. I asked if he had ever thought of girl names and he said he’d only considered 1 – the name Alev (ah-lev). It’s a Turkish name that means flame and when he was growing up, his best friend was Turkish and they went through a teenage-boy-lets-set-things-on-fire phase. They decided if one of them ever had a girl, they should name her Alev. I was like, you’re insane, I’m not naming my child that….
And now I have a daughter named Alev Catherine :).
Having a first name that’s easy to say, pronounce and hear correctly is so important! You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve been called Bernie on the phone instead of Brittany. Then there are about a 1000 ways to spell Brittany, no thanks to Britney Spears during my youth! I also think about nicknames that can come from a first name. Always best to rule those ones out too!
This is one of my favorite posts to date! Including your progress pictures at the top! When you see them in a row you are really starting to show! (Ha there goes that rhyming again!)
Best of luck to you and Ryan on picking a name 🙂
We kept our little guy’s name a secret mostly because we could not agree on one! Once he was born he named him Bryce Murray S—– (Murray is my maiden name!) We didn’t really care about the initials of BS because we were just happy to settle on a name! However before we announced his name one of my friends text me saying: “Just thinking that without a name, we will just have to keep calling him Baby S—– or B.S. which means you were full of BS before he was born! I guess a “B” name is out of the question!” She was so embarrassed when I text her back telling her we named him Bryce! Needless to say I wasn’t upset at all, I was too happy and excited to have my baby boy finally here!
ohhhh i could write a novel on the feedback we got from family (more specifically… my own mother) when we told our respective families what we were going to name our baby girl (Charlie Josephine). We both have grandfathers’ name Charles, and Ryan’s g-pa Charles was actually married to Josephine (and they had all of the McShane kids) and then I also have a greatgreat grandmother whose name was Josephine. When we told my mom what we were going to name her… my mom was like “Huh… Charlie Josephine… that just does NOT flow. And it’s SO not feminine.” (What makes it even better is my g-pa Charles is my mom’s father (a really respected man) and my g-g-gma Josephine is on my mom’s side, too). My mom probably called me 4 times over the span of a month to try and change our minds. Needless to say now that Charlie is here she has gotten over it and now LOVES the name! Ryan’s g-ma Josephine (She goes by “Jo”) is still around (we visit her in the nursing home whenever we are on Sanibel) and when we told her the name she was like (Charlie?! That was your grandfather’s name! That is not a girl’s name! (again, she goes by “jo”… the irony here makes me laugh so much).. “And Josephine? Why would you choose that name? I don’t even like my own name!” Just like my mom, now that Charlie is here, Jo has come around and now LOVES the name — Charlie Josephine was even included in their monthly newsletter when she was born and all the nursing staff went bananas over her when we went to visit.
I love this post!! I’ve always loved names – one of my friends and I have always shared/discussed names since middle school. Meanings, styles… we’ll play a game of “if you had to name your child the name of [electronic, food, etc.]” just to see what we could come up with. 🙂
Funny, and good example, of the importance of initials… my aunt had a great first name for her son and someone else suggested a middle name. They sounded great together, but she instantly realized his initials would be KKK – so that was out FOR SURE. Instead, his initials are EEK. Haha.
As for easy to say and spell, I definitely support that one. As a lifelong sayer and speller, and someone who could NEVER find something with my name on it, I can almost guarantee my future offspring will have more traditional, easy names. (My name is actually easy to say if you can pronounce your Rs, but everyone says it wrong… “no, there’s no A at the end. Just Bree then Ann.” My mom thought she made it phonetic.)
We went with family middle names, our girls have mine as do many others girl in my family. The boys both have a grandpa’s name for theirs.
We went with MayKayla Kay. Myles Anthony. Maxwell Eugene. Mayzie Kay. Yes, in groups I just yell out our last name it’s much easier lol!
Yes we stayed with the M for a first name why I’m not sure it just stuck:) I start with a E and my husband is a C so it’s not as we all are M!
We had so much fun picking out names I hope you guys are too!
We did not share our names with anyone. My husband and I spent countless hours dreaming about what we would call our daughter. We agreed on a middle name, and went to the hospital with 2 names. His favorite name and mine. I wanted to meet my little girl before I decided what to call her. After a long birthing process — I told my husband he could choose her name and no matter what we called her I would love her to pieces. He said he had to sleep on it. The next morning we announced to everyone that our daughter Olivia Ann was born. When my family asked what the other name was we said Brielle (which we were going to call her Ellie). My mom said, I hate that name. So glad I don’t have a granddaughter with that name. I knew at that point we made the right decision of never telling anyone our name choices. Naming our daughter was our decision and I am glad we never had those “voices” in our head sharing their opinions on names!
My name is Melisa and my husband is Chris – Our kids: Marisa and Christina. It’s so confusing in our house when we’re trying to call each other.
When ours were born the names went out the window as none of them looked like the name we had chosen!
I think in addition to P.B.F. (Peter Blayne Fagan) you might want to avoid WTF (Winston Thomas Fagan!)
I completely agree about the classic names…especially for boys! I have two boys and for both their first and middle names we stayed classic. Of course, I used Samuel for my first son’s middle name and then really wished I hadn’t because I would have totally named our second boy that!!
I also ruled out any name that was in the top 20! haha. After going back in forth with my husband, Wyatt was the only name we could both agree on. We love his name! Now if we have a boy for our 2nd baby we will be fresh out of names, hehe.
My husband and I are expecting our first little one, although it will be a surprise on the gender. I’ve LONG had a girl’s name picked out and told my husband what it was when we were dating. He wasn’t thrilled with the middle name (a family name) and being the good, compromising wife that I am, I told him we could amend it. The first name is very southern and the middle name we have settled on is Grace. While this is also a great southern name, the way we came up with it is quite funny! I am a very expressive person and have lots of faces. My husband tells me I have a “grumpy face” and he eventually shortened it to Grace and will call me that when I have that expression. I still shake my head at the fact we are going to use it as a name if we have a girl, but it also makes me laugh.
I don’t know that we will share our names yet, but it’s going to be hard enough not knowing the gender, I just don’t know that I can keep a name a secret too. (I’m also a 2 on a 10-point scale on keeping secrets!)
I totally understand not wanting to tell the world the name you pick. My husband and I only told our immediate family. We were really curious about what our parents thought of the name Eva Marie and frankly, we were itching to tell someone and see their reaction. We went to dinner with each set of parents to tell them the name and see if there were any objections. Luckily everyone loved it and I’m so glad we got to share it with them first.
This post is so fun! I love reading everyone’s stories. I was given the same initials as my mom (Janette Marie is my mom and Julie Michelle is me), and my brother was named after my uncle plus my dad’s first name is my brother’s middle name.
My husband and I had very similar criteria as you and Ryan for naming…classic but not too common, everyone’s heard of it but doesn’t hear it every day. We chose Marshall, and people LOVE it (or at least they say they do!). Yes, there’s some inspiration from How I Met Your Mother there. 🙂 For a long time I wanted his middle name to be David like my dad, but at some point I realized…if I want to name him after the best guy I know, it’s my husband! So he’s Marshall Terence. 🙂 Now if we have another boy we have to find something just as strong and meaningful!
One suggestion my aunt gave us: look through your family genealogy to find a name. We have a huge book of my family genealogy (weird but true), so on a road trip we went through the entire book and found an obscure name from the 1700s that we love for a girl if we have one! You never know where inspiration may strike.
Oh and I agree too about not sharing names. For some reason we’ve seen that people feel it’s their place (often not always) to try to change something they don’t love, rather than trying to change their own opinion. We luckily didn’t know if we were having a boy or girl until the birth, so once the name was official no one shared their thoughts unless they were positive!
We had ridiculous criteria for naming our boys.
1 – Easy to spell (we have a tough last name already)
2 – Familiar and classic, but not overused or too popular
3 – Cultural heritage – had to be pronounceable by both Eastern European and Southern U.S. relatives
4 – No “J” names, because I wasn’t a fan of the J sound switching to a “y” sound in Polish (i.e., Jacob sounds like “yakob”)
5 – The second child had to have a different initial than the first, so we could easily text about each of them – ha!
Also, we went to the hospital both times with a couple of sets of first/middle name options. Once we saw the boys, it was immediately apparent which name was right for them!
My dad was a high school teacher, so one of the most important things to him was that none of us kids were named after bad former students! Haha.
I actually have a few!
1. When my grandmother was pregnant with my mom, she told my great-uncle he could pick the name. But when my mom was born, he was overseas on business so he had to send a telegram. He told them to send it as “Kirven Ann” but it was swapped, so my mom’s name is Ann Kirven. They didn’t find out until my great-uncle got back weeks later, and by then the birth certificate was filed!
2. My half-sister’s name was supposed to be Jessica, but when the nurse came in to fill out her birth certificate my mom was asleep. Her husband told her the name was Ann (mom’s name). So both my mom and my sister were named Ann. It was very confusing when people would call the house.
3. My mom KNEW my name was going to be Amanda Gail. Until I was born and my sister said I looked like a Jennifer. Mom didn’t know anyone with the name at the time (HA!), so she named me Jennifer Suzanne.
4. When my sister gave birth to my niece, she had decided on either Rachel or Veronica. Until she went into labor. When I went to visit my niece in the hospital, I was told her name was Brittany Marie (Marie is a family name).
Something about the names for girls in my family! But it has made me fully realize that sometimes you won’t know your baby’s name until you meet him or her. I’m always amazed at the people that have stuff monogrammed before the baby’s born!