I tell ya, the name game is HARD. Really hard. I never thought that I'd be 27 years old and pregnant and not know what I wanted to name my child. I *think* we have come up with the one, but I'm not quite ready to put it out for the world to see...you know, don't want to many people rushing to get monogrammed bubbles. Ha! Jokes!
Anyways...so I can look back and remember what all we went thru to come up with a name in 20 years I am going to lay it all out there.
I'll start with saying I want a family name to be somewhere in my children's names. It doesn't have to be a first name, but some name in the child's name I want to be from a family member/family.
We'll start with boys names, because they got taken off the table when we found out it was a GIRL..this will be short. Mikey's middle name is Thomas...his grandfather's name is Thomas. So...we always said Thomas would be in our son's name. I always thought it would be cool to do a Thomas _____ Glenn and call him "Trace." *Side bar, I like different names* Well...Mikey does NOT like that...dang it. His brother's name is Trey...so a Trey Glenn and a Trace Glenn are too similar anyways. AND we looked it up and Trace comes from Tracy and he did not want his son being named after a Tracy. Anyways...I digress...it doesn't really matter b/c he didn't like it regardless. We SEARCHED for all boy family names. Y'all there is NOTHING. NOTHING. Mikey's dad is a junior and his brother is a third...so that line of names is out for us. My dad is Kenneth O'Neal, my brother Matthew O'neal (after my grandfather who was Robert O'neal)...so O'neal was out and Kenneth...eehhh. Not so much. My grandfathers names were Robert and Willy...way too many Roberts around and Willy, not so much. We already knew we were definitely using Thomas from one of Mikey's Grandfathers and the other one is out because of Mikey's brother being named after him. So we got NOTHING. If we ever have a boy...who knows what the little tykes name will be. It is so hard to come up with something that both mommy and daddy love. But, that's enough about the boy names for now since it really doesn't matter.
On to the girls. For the past 4 or 5 years I have LOVED the name Mary Hollis. I met a woman in Greenville when my brother got married whose name was Hollis and I just fell in love. But, love double names so really LOVED Mary Hollis. Well....5 years later, I still love that name, BUT...Mikey doesn't really dig double names. AND...one high school BFF named her daughter Mary Mac, and another high school BFF who is a couple weeks ahead of me liked the name Mary Brooks even before I liked Mary Hollis and that's what her little girl will be called. I was not going to have three best friends with three little girls all with Mary- something double names. That'd be a little much...can you imagine us during play dates? Ha! Again...we started searching over TONS of family names...my mom...Donna Lynn Putnam Richardson (yeah...no thanks), Mikey's mom is Susan Elizabeth (Susan...old school, Elizabeth is Mikey's sister's and niece's middle name.) Let me just give you a run down of our grandmother's names so you can laugh with me (RIP to all of them, love you, but the names...not so much!) Mine: Imogene and Zelma. His: Carmen and Nanny (yes, that was her legal name). So....yeah, not much to work with. And while I love and want to incorporate family names...it just doesn't really mean as much to me if it is someone I or Mikey never met. In other words...I'm not trying to go up the family tree 4 generations just to have a "family" name.
Anyways...we've thrown around TONS of names lately and I think we finally are done. We are using the name right now to make sure it's the one. Maybe I'm being over dramatic about choosing a name, but I want a good name that both Mikey and I love. I don't want to just feel "so so" about the name of our child.
So, if anyone is still reading...ha, that sums it up. Names are HARD. Especially when family names leave little to be desired. Name reveal hopefully to come soon. We do need to make a decision at some point b/c momma's gotta start monogramming:)
Anyways...so I can look back and remember what all we went thru to come up with a name in 20 years I am going to lay it all out there.
I'll start with saying I want a family name to be somewhere in my children's names. It doesn't have to be a first name, but some name in the child's name I want to be from a family member/family.
We'll start with boys names, because they got taken off the table when we found out it was a GIRL..this will be short. Mikey's middle name is Thomas...his grandfather's name is Thomas. So...we always said Thomas would be in our son's name. I always thought it would be cool to do a Thomas _____ Glenn and call him "Trace." *Side bar, I like different names* Well...Mikey does NOT like that...dang it. His brother's name is Trey...so a Trey Glenn and a Trace Glenn are too similar anyways. AND we looked it up and Trace comes from Tracy and he did not want his son being named after a Tracy. Anyways...I digress...it doesn't really matter b/c he didn't like it regardless. We SEARCHED for all boy family names. Y'all there is NOTHING. NOTHING. Mikey's dad is a junior and his brother is a third...so that line of names is out for us. My dad is Kenneth O'Neal, my brother Matthew O'neal (after my grandfather who was Robert O'neal)...so O'neal was out and Kenneth...eehhh. Not so much. My grandfathers names were Robert and Willy...way too many Roberts around and Willy, not so much. We already knew we were definitely using Thomas from one of Mikey's Grandfathers and the other one is out because of Mikey's brother being named after him. So we got NOTHING. If we ever have a boy...who knows what the little tykes name will be. It is so hard to come up with something that both mommy and daddy love. But, that's enough about the boy names for now since it really doesn't matter.
On to the girls. For the past 4 or 5 years I have LOVED the name Mary Hollis. I met a woman in Greenville when my brother got married whose name was Hollis and I just fell in love. But, love double names so really LOVED Mary Hollis. Well....5 years later, I still love that name, BUT...Mikey doesn't really dig double names. AND...one high school BFF named her daughter Mary Mac, and another high school BFF who is a couple weeks ahead of me liked the name Mary Brooks even before I liked Mary Hollis and that's what her little girl will be called. I was not going to have three best friends with three little girls all with Mary- something double names. That'd be a little much...can you imagine us during play dates? Ha! Again...we started searching over TONS of family names...my mom...Donna Lynn Putnam Richardson (yeah...no thanks), Mikey's mom is Susan Elizabeth (Susan...old school, Elizabeth is Mikey's sister's and niece's middle name.) Let me just give you a run down of our grandmother's names so you can laugh with me (RIP to all of them, love you, but the names...not so much!) Mine: Imogene and Zelma. His: Carmen and Nanny (yes, that was her legal name). So....yeah, not much to work with. And while I love and want to incorporate family names...it just doesn't really mean as much to me if it is someone I or Mikey never met. In other words...I'm not trying to go up the family tree 4 generations just to have a "family" name.
Anyways...we've thrown around TONS of names lately and I think we finally are done. We are using the name right now to make sure it's the one. Maybe I'm being over dramatic about choosing a name, but I want a good name that both Mikey and I love. I don't want to just feel "so so" about the name of our child.
So, if anyone is still reading...ha, that sums it up. Names are HARD. Especially when family names leave little to be desired. Name reveal hopefully to come soon. We do need to make a decision at some point b/c momma's gotta start monogramming:)
I like Carmen. She'd be born with red lipstick :)
ReplyDeleteNo DOUBT names are hard. So much pressure, so many opinions! And I've never heard of anyone having so many family names taken already. Wowzers! I can't wait to hear the name; I'm sure it will be gorgeous, just like her. :)
ReplyDeleteNames are super important, your little lady will have that name her whole life. I can sympathize with how you feel, I may have been a teensy bit overdramatic myself when choosing our baby's name. **for evidence see my first sentence - I blame hormones :)
ReplyDeleteI have a running list of my future kids names..and I haven't even factored in the fact that my future husband may have ideas of his own haha :) the name thing is so tough though! i had a hard enough time picking my pups name out (he's definitely a Riley) and then a week later my bff got a pup and also named her pup Rylee...so much for being different! good luck
ReplyDeleteYou're 100% correct to be taking the name-choosing really seriously! The last thing you want is to regret what you pick! Aaron and I were never quite sure of a name until about a week before each baby was born, but we did go around 'using' the potential names for awhile. It's amazing how much you can love a name until you start pretending to yell it on the playground, or think about what it will get shortened too. We had a boy name we LOVED until we realized the initials would have been STD! whoops! Can't wait to hear your winning name! :)
ReplyDeleteI dunno, I kinda like Zelma. :)I'm all about old names made new and fabulous again.
ReplyDelete