How did you choose baby's name?

[Shenandoah]

We had a really hard time choosing a name for this baby. I had a list of about 20 names which we whittled down to 2 first/ middle combinations by my edd. I still had 3 other first names in my head, just in case. We were waiting to meet our boy before naming him. DH saw him first and said, "Oh, he's a Troy." I must agree.

We had reservations about using Troy because our daughter, who is named after my late Grandma, is Helen. Our middle son is Russell. People seem to be finding the Helen / Troy thing much more amusing than we anticipated. And it is annoying me. We thought it would be mildly amusing for about 30 seconds. Is it really so strange? People keep asking what our backup names were. I feel like they are asking to see if they like those better.

Troy really suits him. When I say the other names and look at him it is just off.

[OldFashionedGirl]

I do not find the combination THAT funny. I mean, I guess I chuckled a little, but it's not hysterical or so bad that I thought, "WHAT were they thinking!?" (Unlike the woman in town who named her children Colby and Jack. SPECIFICALLY so it could be like the cheese.)

It's funny that you say he "looked" like a Troy. My boyfriend was really hesitant about selecting names, and insists that we have several for each sex, just in case it doesn't "LOOK like a Leah or a Darrin." I think he's crazy, but it makes him happy

And in terms of picking the names we did....Darrin has always been bf's favorite name. I came up with Nolan, after Nolan Ryan. (My bf's name is Ryan, and I REALLY campainged for Ryan as a middle name as well, but Ryan said that was stupid.) I came up with Leah after Drew Lachey's wife (shhh! Don't tell bf, or he'll change his mind about it! ). And bf came up with Meredith after watching some Sarah Jessica Parker Movie. I'm afraid if we ever tell our child this, he'll be scarred! )

[MacKinnon]

We came into the hospital with a list of 4 names that we had agreed on- Noah William, Isaac William, Dylan William and Liam James. When he was born, none of them seemed quite right. We liked all of them, and felt he could be any of them! So we went back to the books and came up with one more name, Connor William. Well, about 30 hours into my 36 hour stay, we still didn't have a name! We started polling our family & friends, etc. I have a girlfriend who does a newborn home visiting program in our county, she said that we have ALOT of Noah's and Liam's, so we took those two off the list. Then we decided that Connor rhymed too much with our last name, so we took it off. Then we looked up the meanings, etc. of Isaac and Dylan. Isaac means "he who laughs" or "laughter." Plus it is much less popular than Dylan. And he just looks more like an Isaac. Poor DH though, he was so indesicive. With DD, he wasn't this bad. But with DS, he just couldn't agree on a name! I really had to push him hard. Anyway, DD wanted to name DS "Sarah." She was very insistent the whole pregnancy! Well, after we brought Isaac home, we found out that in the Bible, Isaac is the son of Sarah, which kind of sealed the deal for us that it was the right name! Anyway, it was quite a process!

[junipermuse]

We're still waiting for this baby to make her appearance, so we technically there is a chance we'll change our mind, but the only name we have chosen is "Juliette Elizabeth" Juliette is after my paternal grandmother who's middle name is Julie (though everyone calls her Judy). My grandmother is french so the french diminuitive (Juliette) is especially appropriate. I also really liked the name Julian for a boy because I loved the nickname Jules. So I'm happy that Jules can used for Juliette as well. My husband never loved it, but it was the one name everyone in the family seemed to really like. It seems to have grown on him though. I also liked Juliette because it was familiar to people without being common. My name was #1 the year I was born and I hated being one of so many. Juliette isn't even in the top 1000 names.

As far as the middle name, I really wanted to use my mother's name Suzanne, but Dh hated it. We settled on Elizabeth which is my Sister's middle name as well as a family name going back on both my mother's and my Poppy's(step-father who raised me since I was a baby) sides of the family. I really had wanted to use a family name from my husband's side of the family, but the only names my he liked were boys names, so I guess we'll have to wait until the next baby. Also Dh is Jewish and so it is customary not to name the baby after a living relative, only after people who have died. Since he never knew any of his relatives who have passed on, none of those names held any special meaning for him. Since my family is not Jewish we compromised, the baby could be named after living members of my family, but only none living members of his.

Anyway that's how we arrived at Juliette Elizabeth. Now if only she'd actually arrive.

[storychick]

My DD was insistent the whole pregnancy that the baby's name was Elemeno/LMNO. So we started calling her that, and after we couldnt agree and couldnt agree on names even a few days before the birth, we started looking at the "El" names in the baby name book. I'd had Eleanor on my list each time but DH always said no, but this time it worked, he had gotten so used to Elemeno.

Her middle name is my mother's name.

[meggles]

We had a few names for a girl and one name for a boy. After she was born, we waited about 3 days to name her, trying to figure out which name "fit" her best. We hadn't told anyone any of the names we were considering. When she was 3 days old, we were eating dinner with my mom and she started pressing us about name possibilities. She threw out some names that were not on our list, and we shrugged her off, not wanting to share any names until we'd figured out which one suited baby. Then, my mom said (out of nowhere) "She looks like a Molly to me." Dh and I just looked at eachother like "Did you tell her that was one of our top contenders?!" Neither of us had said anything to her...so we figured her name must be Molly if grandma was pulling it out of the air. She really is a Molly, too...super sweet and calm, but with a fierce stubborn quality as well. Her middle name, Luna, was easy... it's earthy and feminine. It took us over a year to conceive her and I would go out on every full moon and pray to have a big, round baby belly. So that's how we came up with Molly Luna.

[blastomom]

There was such a huge hassle over the name we had chosen for our first son (my mom hated the name, dh's step-family had major emotional baggage with the name as well so we ended up coming up with a completely different name 2 days after he was born) that I refused to discuss names with anyone this time around. Hubby and I were pretty firm on a girl's name, but we had nothing at all for a boy. So of course we had a son! He also had no name for two days. All I knew was that we would call him Kai so his Hawaiian middle name had to have that in it. For a while it was Ray Ka'inoa (Ray was DH's grandfather's name and Rae is a family name on my side as well) and Kainoa means "namesake" in Hawaiian. I wasn't sold on that, so we stayed up late my last night in hospital pouring through Hawaiian name books. We ended up with Dylan because Dylan Thomas is one of DH's favorites and that was one of the girls' names we were considering and Kamanakai because it means the power/strength/soul of the ocean. I also thought that Dylan Kamanakai was a good match for our first son's name, Ryan Kamakakoa.

[katie9143]

having planned the homebirth, we just thought that we would have tons of time and no one (other than family) harassing us to fill out the birth certificate - so we were not at all prepared with a name!! Fortunately they didnt make us choose one before leaving the hospital (although now we have to make an appt to go back and fill out the birth certificate) - and when we got home and my mum was harassing me for something to call her, I told my fiance that he could pick the name. I had gone through so much to get her that i thought it was his turn to be responsible for something!!! it took him a day or so, but he came up with Amelia Devi and I was very pleasantly surprised that i loved his choice

[katie9143]

My DD was insistent the whole pregnancy that the baby's name was Elemeno/LMNO.

omg, that is so cute!

[Shenandoah]

Originally Posted by blastomom

There was such a huge hassle over the name we had chosen for our first son

All I knew was that we would call him Kai so his Hawaiian middle name had to have that in it.

We had huge hassles over dd name. I still hear about it from MIL.

Hawaiian? Is that on your side or your dh's? Just curious. Are you living on the islands or mainland?

[bleumoose]

I love reading about how people pick names

I went through a book of names and made a list of 7 or 8 boy names, but didn't show it to DH. I gave him the book, and as he was reading through it, he said "What about Dermot?" It was on my list too, and was one that had leapt out at me, I'd never remotely considered it before. It just seemed like too much of a coincidence, to me it felt like baby was helping us pick

Then, for his middle name, both my and Dh's maternal grandfathers have Leroy in their names as a first or middle name.

[janerose]

Zoe Jane is a Staind song that we have both loved since I was pg w/ DD1 (it was our back-up name for her too). A total Daddy/DD song!

Here's the lyrics:

well i want you to notice
to notice when i'm not around
and i know that your eyes see straight through me
and speak to me without a sound

[chorus]

i want to hold you
protect you from all of the things I've already endured
I want to show you
Show you all the things that this life has in store for you
I'll always love you
the way that a father should love his daughter

when i walked out this morning
i cried as i walked to the door
i cried about how long i'd be away for
i cried about leaving you all alone

[chorus]

sweet zoe jane [x2]

so i wanted to say this
cuz i wouldn't know where to begin
to explain to you what i have been through
to explain where your daddy has been

[chorus]

sweet zoe jane [x2]

[blastomom]

Originally Posted by Shenandoah

We had huge hassles over dd name. I still hear about it from MIL.

Hawaiian? Is that on your side or your dh's? Just curious. Are you living on the islands or mainland?

I was born and raised in Hawaii. Then a big, hairy haole guy came and stole me away to the fridgid waistland of the Chicago suburbs and then moved us to the pseudo-South. He's lucky I still love him after all of that...

[NewEyes]

We had a "top 3" list that we tossed around for a few months. Our ds insisted the name would be Cinderella... So one day I pitched all three names to him on a long car drive. After sitting quietly, he said, "Mommy, I think I could call her Liliana, but not those other names."
We agreed to keep it a secret & he did until she was born. Which I think is pretty amazing that he kept a secret for 5 months at age 4!

[Shenandoah]

Originally Posted by blastomom

I was born and raised in Hawaii. Then a big, hairy haole guy came and stole me away to the fridgid waistland of the Chicago suburbs and then moved us to the pseudo-South. He's lucky I still love him after all of that...

laughup

I had a good friend in college who was raised in Hawaii. She came to the East coast for college. She was hysterically funny when it snowed. AFAIK she moved back to the islands as soon as she could.