From Penelope to Phineas....

What's in a name?  The name you give your baby is so incredibly important to you and him.  It can be the most difficult decision, or perhaps one of the easiest.  You can fret about it for the entire 9 months, and come home with a nameless baby, or, you can forget about it the entire 9 months take one look at that round little face and say "Amelia" and all is right with the world.  You may have a thousand injected opinions floating around your head, or possibly be left to your own devices. 

I recently came across the baby name lists that Chris and I made when I was pregnant with the kids.  Our baby stuff is still (after 10 years) sitting it a Rubbermaid boxes waiting to be sorted into baby books.  (see, sometimes I'm not on top of my game)  It's interesting to see the names that we considered while each of them were in my belly.  I look at the lists again and wonder what made us choose the names we did over the alternatives. 

Alex was our first borne, and with his name classic was what we were looking for.  He was my first, and I was so worried about screwing him up, I didn't want him to have to live up to a name, or feel pressured to be artistic if he was more of a computer nerd.  How many times have we met adults, and when they introduce themselves do you say to yourself "What were your parents thinking?"  I was so concerned about what other people would thing, looking back on it, I'm embarrassed honestly.  Our list for him was:

Jordan
Joseph
Michael
Alexander
Dylan
Caleb
Blaine
Thomas
Jackson
Dominic

We ended up choosing Alexander Ryan for our little bundle of joy.  I remember going over names with my mother and her disliking all but Alexander, so that's the one that stuck.  I do regret my decision, for the simple reason that did not choose the name I ultimately gave my child.  I won't dwell on the past, but I will say that if I had went with my gut, I would have a son named Blaine Joseph, just FYI. 

When we were expecting Jaydyn, Chris decided to learn from his original mistake, and took the reins on the baby name.  Again we knew we were expecting a boy, and Chris decided on his name pretty quickly.  Anthony Lee, would be the newest member of our family come March.  However, one look at this babe, and we knew it wasn't right so we were back to the drawing board:

Anthony
Jaydyn
Elijah
Ezra
Gavin
Taylor
Owen
Hunter
Silas
Jack

We took a day before we decided on Jaydyn Lee.  This taught us a valuable lesson, we never again gave a baby name until we saw them. 

Noah's list was brought to the hospital along with baby name books just in case they didn't fit. 

Noah
Taylor
Connor
Chase
Parker
Brody
Finn
Max
Grayson
Jude

We decided on Noah Michael.  I had watched he Notebook" the day before I delivered this kid, in fact that may have been the very last thing that I had watched.  That may have had something to do with it, because I do remember saying that I hoped he found his Allie one day hahaha.  I wish I could blame that on the drugs, but alas I didn't have any.

That brings us to the twins, and naming twins is hard.  Not only were we looking for names that sounded well with our last name, we also were looking for names that sounded well together without sounding the same.  I assumed that having twins would be difficult enough without having to differentiate between Ashley and AshLynn. I was also convinced that I was only caring one girl, the ultrasound technician MUST have checked the same baby twice.  There was no way, after 3 boys I would finally be blessed with TWO girls! I made two lists, one with two girl names, and another with boy girl names. 

GIRLS:
Cecilia and Grace
Harper and Olivia
JackLynn and Izobel
Adelaide and Madeline
Sophia and Stella
Ella and Ava
Quinn and Coral
Cara and Carly
Olive and Willow
Lola and Mia

GIRL BOY:
Ava and Ashton
Gabriella and Grayson
Harper and Hunter
Leah and Levi
Mia and Mason
Maci and Max
Ava and Elliot
Vivienne and Harlow
Phoebe and Tristan

We decided with JackLynn Lorraine and Izobel Marie for our little ladies, and I guess the technician was right after all, both babies were girls :) 

When it comes down to it, you are the only one that can name your baby.  Chances are good that your child will hate you for it at one point or another before they are 18, and that's OK.  Maybe the name won't fit them, and maybe it will.  They may want to change it when they are older, and that's OK too, after all they are the ones that have to live with it for the rest of their lives.