Thursday, September 13, 2007

Its all in the name

Some people go through a lot of thought and research in order to find a name for their new baby. Is the name popular? Does it have a precious meaning to go along with a precious new baby? Is it a name that is linked to my ethnic heritage (mine would be dutch)? Can we find a name that would be a "family" name?

In our family, pregnancy is not a fun 9 months (or 7 1/2...) - Cornbread says I turn into a different person (one that he doesn't like as much as my lovely normal self), he also gets wigged out by the thought of a baby being in my stomach. He thinks it is kind of creepy - almost like an alien in there trying to kick its way out. Nice, eh? So there are no stories being read to the baby by daddy. Daddy doesn't talk to the baby. Daddy doesn't try to feel the baby move. Daddy doesn't acknowledge baby unless he's forced to. In each of the three pregnancies, if you had gone by watching and listening to him, you would barely know that his wife was pregnant.

So choosing a name is a chore. Of course, being the mom and thinking of everything, I thought that choosing a name was an important aspect of having a child. He, on the other hand, thought it was a hassle and didn't want to deal with it. We argued. We disagreed. He famously told me that I didn't choose "real" names, but instead just put syllables together and called it a "name" (that was in response to me suggesting Ava when I was pregnant with Ryann).

Ultimately, though, we settled on names that we both loved and are very happy with.

Nora was named through a multiple choice list. My parents named me and my sister CarA & JanA because my dad didn't want our names shortened to anything with an "eeee" sound at the end (ala susIE, KatIE, ShellY). Can't shorten our names. I thought it would be nice to carry on that tradition. After thinking long and hard about names I gave Cornbread a list:
A) Mona
B) Nola
C) Nora

He could choose. I liked them all, but I liked Mona and Nola best. He chose Nora. We were happy. Then chose Grace as a middle name because it just sounded good.

Her boy name, by the way, was Joshua something. Not even sure how we picked that.

Ryann was named via a tabloid magazine. We had gone 'round and 'round through lists of names. I was trying to stick with the theme of A on the end and an older, classic name that would not be popular. Ava. Audra. Lena. No. No. No.

As we were driving to Michigan one weekend, I was reading a silly entertainment magazine. It had a story about Christian Slater in it and his girlfriend's name is Ryan Haddon (I think). I threw the name, Ryan, out there in a snotty tone of voice: "Well, we could name a girl Ryan". Cornbread, astonishingly, LOVED it. LOVED it - I mean he just went nuts over it. While I was in labor with her, I asked him if we should change our girls name - I was very nervous about naming her a boys name even with the additional N. He refused to discuss it. Ryann was it. And she really is a Ryann.

My dad called her "the baby girl with a boys name" for a long time. My MIL told people about her grandaughters and always included "... and Ryann (she's a girl)". My Gram told people that her grandaughter had another baby, "Ryann JOY" with emphasis on the joy so people woudl realize she was a GIRL. Many family members had to get used to the idea, but now no one even questions it.

We added Joy as a middle name because I wanted her initials to be RJ.

Her boy name was Jackson Davis - chosen because I love the name Jack (and Jackson) and I wanted the initials JD because I wanted to call our son JD.

Georgia was named via a cast off from a friend;) Before I even got pregnant with Georgia I had fallen in love with the name (after hearing it was on the list for Jen's Greta). When I got pregnant, I didn't say anything because I didn't want to discuss names with Cornbread due to the frustration of the previous pregnancy - I was going to wait this one out.

I was out on a "date" with PD after an appointment and she had found out she was a having a girl. She told me she was going to name her Georgia after a grandpa and call her Georgie. I about had a heart attack. Not only were we due 2 days apart, going to the same OB, going to all of our appointments together, but great minds thought exactly alike! But alas, Georgia was off of our list.

So back to the list. Ava came up again. Cornbread resigned to it. I think he was sick of the argument. When I suggested it his response was, "Fine." To which I was kind of heartbroken - I didn't want to have a child who had a name that we could "settle on" - I wanted a special name for this one, too. Third children really get all the leftovers, right? But we were stuck on Ava because neither of us wanted to discuss it any further.

The night of our glucose test, PD & I were waiting our turns in the hospital lobby and she said she had something important to talk about. She said that her husband hated the name Georgia, he had only agreed to it to keep her quiet. He refused to use that name. So could she have Ava and I could have Georgia if I had a girl?

Um, yes, I think we could make that happen.

Georgia's middle name is Nicole because it was the only name we could add that wouldn't make her whole name sound southern. Cornbread wanted Noelle, but we agreed to Nicole.

And since we are done having children, I will tell you the greatest boys name ever: Victor. Georgia's boys name was Victor Alan, Victor Douglas, Walter Alan or Walter Douglas (we hadn't decided yet).

How did you name your kids?

8 comments:

Jen 1:08 PM  

My favorite topic EVER! hee hee.

My girls are
Caroline Rebekah~I wanted Allison but I heard of 3 born while I was pregnant with her so we started looking for something new. Heard "Sweet Caroline" on the radio and that was it. Rebekah is the name Tim wanted for her first name but I didn't like Becky. Boy name was Caleb Jon since we couldn't agree on anything else.

Amelia Kate~We also did the multiple choice test. I gave him Kathleen, Amelia, Margaret, Charlotte and Eliza. He picked Amelia. I picked Kate cuz I thought it sounded cool after a very vowel-heavy first name. Her boy name was Wyatt.

Greta Lindsay~Sort of a multiple choice here too. And we had it narrowed to Charlotte, Greta, and Georgia. He choose Georgia~especially after learning his favorite Desperate Housewife (Felicity Huffman) had a Georgia. On the way to the hospital was agreed to Georgia Grace. After I was sent home for a few more days of pregnant, he chickened out. Said our family and friends would think it was weird so Greta she became. Lindsay was sort of a take on Linda which was my mom's name.

And my son in Wyatt Nathan. Wyatt has been THE boy name since Amelia. Tim loves westerns and I love it since it was a bit different but not too much so. And Tim also like d it since it was not what he called a "kick my a$$ name" Ex. he used was a name I loved~Cameron. "Hi, my name is Cameron. Feel free to kick my a$$." Nice husband I have. Wyatt's girl name was narrowed to Charlotte or Scarlett Faith. We were still fighting while I was in labor.

Jen 1:10 PM  

You totally knew I'd be first to comment on this one! :-)

kkoois 3:54 PM  

um...jen forgot to mention that they scooped up the name caroline quickly knowing full well jer and i would have used it.

elise susan - elise because why wouldn't we name our kid after a song by The Cure? and susan was my mom's middle name. (truthfully, we didn't name her after the cure song, but i did get the idea from it - we're not that big of freaks...) her boy name was undecided as she was born. i will keep them to myself since we may pop another one out sometime and it might be a boy.

Jen 9:16 PM  

Jana,

I loved your post!

I obsessed about baby names and now still do since I am a Labor and Delivery nurse. I could share with you all lots of cool names!

Anyway, our son is Jordan Alan. I threw out Blake & Eli to my husband and he didn't bite...When I was 5 months pregnant we were camping with a large group from our church. We had a lot of fun with a little Jordan that week-end. Somehow, a week later, Glenn mentioned he'd love to name our son Jordan. I didn't balk and knew that was our son's name. I wanted Jordan Bryce after my Dad. When Jordan was born, Glenn said he wanted to name his son after himself...how could I disagree? Glenn's middle name is Alan as well Grandpa Carlson's. So we have a 3-generation tradition (no pressure Jordan...) Girls name: Leah Joy. My Mom told me after Jordan was born she was glad he was a boy because Leah was the ugly disliked daughter in the Bible. Thanks..

Our daughter: Hope Melissa. We LOVE her name. Love it.... Glenn and I were on vacation when I was 4 months pregnant and we were chatting about names. I had a LONG list for girls: Meredith, Mallory, Ellie, Brooke....Our boy list was very short but we decided on Eli John. Eli I just liked and John was after 2 of our grandfathers. We picked Hope after seeing something on our vacation that said Hope. It might have been on a street sign or something. We wanted a one-syllable name and the meaning of hope- "things that are certain to come" is amazing; God's plans for us are certain.

Her middle name, Melissa, is after my sister who was born and died in Nov. of 1975. A part of her is now always with us through Hope.

Amy 11:46 PM  

I think people we know and meet have the biggest influence on names we like. They aren't named after these people, but it gave us ideas. Or it rules out certain names. Like names of ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends aren't even considered.

I started liking the name Hailey when I worked for Grand Haven Public Schools during the 2001-2002 school year. I had a "Hailey" in one of the schools I subbed at. She was a funny and lively four year-old, kind of tomboyish and she had a twin brother Nicholas. Then when when we were in South Dakota the summer of 2003 we got to know one of the families in our church who had a "Haley" who was in junior high. We kept in touch with Haley and her sister Cassie even a couple years after we left SD. Actually Hailey's name was going to be Janae Christine at first. Janae is after my mom (Janice) and Rob's mom (Janet). Rob liked "Christine" because it means "Christ bearer." We switched it to Hailey Janae when I was about five months along. Boy's name was Caden Robert. We found Caden off a name list without realizing how popular it was. Robert is of course after Rob.

I won't reveal to you what this baby's name will be. If it's a boy it won't be Caden. If it's a girl, the name is not anything that we had considered when we chose Hailey's name.

Lisa @ Heaven Sent 1:30 PM  

VICTOR??!!! So funny to hear you say that. Jeff's Dad LOVES that name (especially Vic), and it's a family joke that we would never name our child that. Somehow, coming from you though, it doesn't sound as bad! ;)

I think you already know Emma's story. In fact, I posted about it today. But anyway, Emma is named after her Great Great Grandma, who is still alive. My sister and I agreed that whoever had the first baby girl had to name her that, and I was first! Unfortunately, Emma turned out to be the most popular/trendy girl name ever, but I didn't let that take away from it's original meaning to us.

Kay, Emma's name, is Jeff's mom's middle name. We wanted both sides of the family in there, plus, I really liked the simplicity of it.


Emma's boy name would have been Aiden Bernard. Aiden because I liked it and Bernard because it was my maiden name.

This time around, Kendall Faith is the girl's name. We just both like Kendall, and Jeff's sister's middle name is Faith. Plus, our faith is very important to us, so it seemed fitting.

Boy's name is up for grabs, but the current winner is Austin Bernard. First name might change, but the middle one is sticking.

Whew... that was a long comment! But you asked! ;)

Mommy Brain 7:49 AM  

Jana...I got your email and my send record says I sent a reply...but who knows. Please don't sweat it, life is too short. But thanks for your concern...your too sweet! It's all good!

Mommy Brain 11:03 AM  

biermaclan@comcast.net or...the good DR.'s is kidsdoc1@juno.com

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