Baby Names

So, I was just reading the blog of a friend who is having a little girl soon and asking for ideas on baby names. And even though I think we have some good ideas for names for this baby, I thought I’d just see if anyone could think of any other baby names that we might like better. We are pretty sure on the girl name we have, and we have a boy name we like, but could possibly be up for suggestions. So, any ideas?

If you care to know how I decide on a baby name, here are some things that I take into consideration (yes, I know I am pretty picky about baby names). I don’t like names that are really common (like John, Mary, Joshua, Kathryn, etc.) [and then there are some more common names that I quite like, such as Samuel or Benjamin, but I just don’t want my kids to have to be Sam B. all through school because there are 3 or 4 other kids in their classes with the same name], but I don’t like names that are so weird that you can’t pronounce them either. Michael is more likely to lean towards names that I consider more common than I am. And I have to think that the name goes well with the other kids’ names – like all of the boys have two syllable names (I know, Elijah is 3 syllables, but he goes by Eli most of the time), and I wouldn’t choose a name that sounded too similar to one of the other boys’ (I like Levi, but it’s too close to Eli, and I like Caleb but it sounds kind of like Kolby). And then you have to consider nicknames – I love the name Jeremiah, but dislike Jerry or Jer, and I think Miah sounds a little girly. Or Ezekiel (many of you know that this was almost Camden’s name), but almost everyone’s first reaction to the name was “Oh, Zeke the Geek.” (I know that kids can think up a mean nickname for most any name, but if that’s the first thing that people think of, it’s probably not the best idea). And then there are a few names that I think are really cute, but Michael automatically vetoes (for some unknown reason) J like Easton, Weston, Riley, Franklin (but I don’t like Frank), Harrison, Quinn, Lincoln, Keegan, etc. Oh, and Michael usually doesn’t go for names that are used for boys and girls, except for Aaron (because everyone knows that Erin is a girl and Aaron is a boy). [As you can tell, I am mostly thinking about boys’ names – we have quite a list of possible girls’ names, and are kind of running out of boys’ names we agree on.]

Yes, I know, I put way more thought into this whole baby naming business than most people probably do, but oh well – I’m going to have to be saying these names for the rest of my life, so I guess I’d better like them.