What's in a Name?

I think every woman who plans to have kids some day, and even those who don't, have baby names that they like. Before we got pregnant, I kept a draft in my Gmail that I updated with boy and girl names. Some of them I came up with on my own, my husband mentioned some of them, and others we discussed together.

So when it came time to actually start choosing a name for the baby, I thought it would be a simple task.

NOPE.

As it turns out, naming another human is actually a lot of pressure.

You want to find a name that means something to you. You want a name that is strong. You want a name that won't get the kid made fun of his whole life. You want a name that is cute, but will also carry him or her into adulthood. You want a name that doesn't have the possibility of terrible nicknames from other little assholes. Maybe you want a family name. You want a name that is unique, but not too unique. And also one that is not too popular.

Three prime examples of terrible names.

Before we knew we were having a boy, we had two boy names we agreed that we would choose between. But as we considered girl names, we found it VERY hard to agree. Near the end, we finally agreed on one name that I'm pretty sure would have been our girl's name (and probably will be if we ever have one), but we basically decided to stop playing the name game until we knew if Baby Farrell was a boy or girl. (I recommend this - it will prevent a lot of fights.)

I call my husband "The Name Nazi." Every name I threw out there, he would ponder and come up with how said name could be used against the child. He'd come up with possible nicknames and if the possibility of a terrible nickname presented itself, the name was axed. We had to cross off A LOT of names for this reason. For example, I LOVE the name Greyson. "Grey" is such a cute little nickname. But when my husband pointed out that kids could (and probably would) call him "Gay" or "Gayson," it totally ruined it for me.

We also had the debate of "Let's name him this and call him this." For example, let's name him Bennett, but call him Ben. Which then begged the question, why, if you want to call him Ben, would you name him Bennett? You may have your own reasons and opinions on this. Ultimately, we never let this affect our name choice. Except with one name that had the possibility of a nickname/shortened version we did not want people calling him. So it got the axe.

As I said, we had two boys names that we both loved, but agreed that the one we are going with was "the one" for this baby. Hard to say why. When considering middle names, we wanted to use a family name, so we asked around on male names that ran in the family (aside from ones we knew). We've decided that, too, and are also keeping that a surprise.

Speaking of, no, we are not sharing our name prior to his being born. WITH ANYONE. My sisters try to get it out of me every time we talk. I must say, it's a fun way to torture people. (Muah hahahaha.) Our reasons for not sharing are pretty simple: We don't want your opinion.

Too many times, with family and with friends, I have heard them share their names and get a negative reaction from someone. "You're naming him what?" "I know someone named ___ and she is a bitch!" or "Ugh, that name is so snobby."

I give kudos to those parents who don't care what other people think and who share their name with everyone proudly, no matter what the opinion. For us, it's just not the route we are going with.

I can't wait to finally share with you all, and the world, what our little man is named. I'll give you a hint - JUST KIDDING. The name we chose is meaningful to us and to our family. It is strong. It is cute at the same time. It is perfect.

How did you choose your baby name?

SHARE: