What's in a name? How did you get your name? How did you decide on your children's names? Did it involve negotiation, bribery, creativity, and maybe even some cajoling on your part?
I have been making my way through Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Writing about her visit to Bali, she commented on how the Balinese usually named their children one of four names: Wayan, Made, Nyoman, and Ketut. You were named based on your birth order.
INGENIUS. Oh, how simple that would make it.
Our daughters were given names that are on the top 10 list of the most popular names of the years in which they were born.
Not very creative of us, I know.
How did our daughters get their names?
BABY #1:With our first daughter, we didn't know her sex. We were so confident we were having a boy, afterall, everyone said so...Everyone took blue plates rather than pink at my baby shower and strangers in the grocery store proclaimed it was a boy based on how I was carrying. We had picked out the baby's name based on my husband's family names and family lore: Hayden Joseph. After months of debate, the only girl's name we could agree on was Emily.
Maybe I should mention that it is probably good we had a girl since as I was pushing my husband announced that he didn't like the name Hayden. HIS EXCUSE? He couldn't picture Hayden Joseph on a business card. My ultimatum was he had until my next contraction to come up with a name. He had literally seconds and choose Ryan Joseph. Of course we had a girl (even though there was some confusion at first).
BABY #2: Because I don't like surprises we found out the sex during my second pregnancy. If we thought naming our first daughter was hard it was impossible for the second. The only name we could agree on was Madison and friends of ours were naming their daughter Madison (and were due several weeks before our daughter was due) so in my mind they had dibs on the name. My husband kept bringing the name Madison up and the name kept popping up everywhere we went. The people behind us at a baseball game calling "Madison, wait up" as their daughter ran ahead, that was the name of our server at a restaurant, friends suggesting the name, ...
Only weeks before my due date, my friend (who was naming her daughter Madison) was joking how we should name our baby Madison to and I confessed that that was the only name the two of us could agree on but I was NOT naming our daughter the same name as their daughter since they had dibs on the name. My friend, bless her, laughed hysterically and said they would love to have us name our daughter Madison so our "Maddies" could grow up together.
Needless, to say we would have been fools not to name her Madison and to return to the difficult task of finding a name, enduring more disagreeing and arguing.
How did you come up with your children's names????
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15 comments:
I liked the letter M and wanted all my kids to have a nice name nothing strange and odd- as my name is a boy name and I am so far the only girl I know of with the name and spelling- my name is Brodie- I was named after Jean Brodie ( some english teacher, their is an old movie about her)
my kids are Madeline, Mackenzie, Micah, and Morgan
have a great day!
I think naming a baby is such torture! LOL. There is so much that goes into it. It seems all fun until it's your baby on the line! lol. Let's see...
#1: After quite a bit of time, I actually mentioned a name to my husband that he had previously mentioned but I forgot. (nice sentence..lol) So, we went with it!
#2: Couldn't agree on anything at first. So finally we went with the only boy name we could agree on. It was a suggestion from a friend.
#3: My husband and son picked it. I had a million names and then hated them all..so I just gave it over to my husband. My son agreed...so she was named.
#4: Changed my mind every week. Finally a week before she was born, a pregnant lady told me what she was naming her daughter. I did not know this woman..she worked at a store where I was shopping. Well, I liked the name so much, I stole it! lol. It's not a very inventive name...so I didn't take anything one of a kind. lol.
By the way...when I was giving my blog designer ideas for a new blog..I used yours as one of my favorites. :) My new one looks nothing like your, oddly..lol..but your blog is just beautiful! :) It's not my golden one..but a totally new site.
Great topic! First, let me say that being called Peryl (as in "danger," same pronounciation and meaning) was no picnic as a kid. I desperately wanted to be called Sarah, or Nicole. I'm comfortable with it now, but I still wasn't in any hurry to give my kids unusual names. My boys are Jack and Alex - both named after beloved grandfathers, and both were the single name at the time my husband and I could agree upon!
Wow could you imagine just going with the Balinese way! But at the park wouldn't that get all so confusing!???
With our first daughter it was pretty easy we loved the name Isabella and me being Italian and my husband part hispanic is just seemed perfect!
With our adopted son it was hard...so I searched from names with a meaning that I loved. Jaden means God has heard...it was just perfect for us.
Then my last guy was tough! It took awhile of searching! I wanted something different because both Bella and Jaden are hugely popular now...crap!
So Reece with a C was our choice after many months of great debating! I loved Rex but my hubby kept saying ya want people to call him Sex?
I have always loved the name Isobel - but never thinking I would have a child of my own I suggested it to my sister when she was pregnant with her fourth child and second little girl and having a hard time coming up with a name. So she named her daughter Isobel. So when I became pregnant and discovered I was having a girl I could not, for the longest time, get past Isobel. We eventually decided on Mirabelle, as being dissimilar enough but still a "bel" sound at the end and it was a pretty name. Now I love it and much prefer it to Isobel!
Okay first I have to say how weird...but my son's name is RYAN JOSEPH! Seriously. How did we pick the names? For our first, we knew it was girl--we peeked. We both agreed on Kristin or Stephanie...when it came down to it, we chose Kristin Elizabeth. Elizabeth is his Maternal grandmother's middle name. and thus a tradition was born. Our second was also a girl and while I really liked Emma Kay (Kay was my aunt's middle name) he felt Emily was a better fit. I liked Emily and so Emily Kay was ours. And then our son...we wanted Joseph to be part of his name some how. We both have Joseph's in our family. It was a long time before we landed on Ryan. And he is...Ryan! haha.
I am now following you from MBC! I look forward to reading more of your posts!
I love the names Isobel and Madeline.
Peryl-I totally love your name! It sounds so elegant and refined.
Lourie-How cool that your son's name is Ryan Joseph! Joseph is my husband's middle name. Ryan was one of the names we had been tossing back and forth for the longest time but our family liked Hayden because it had special meaning for my husband's family.
I love the idea of picking the names based on meanings! I have no idea what my daughter's names mean.
With both girls I just "knew" I felt it inside me!
Here it goes My oldest daughter I liked the name Mia, but had to give her her fathers first initial so named her Jahmia (don't ask where the H came from)
My son had to be named after his dad. So James it was
My baby girl I had to keep the J's going so named her Jala
Hi.. I’m Barb from Friday Follow..I'm new to this but have found such wonderful people doing these parties & link ups. I wish the rest of the world could be as uplifting & supportive to each other as I have experienced here. I hope you will pop over to see my blog & get inspired for your family/ home & that you will become a follower of mine too!! Barb
I have a feeling there will be a whole lot of Haydens on business cards a couple of decades from now. And Hannahs, Taylors, Cassidys, etc. The normal name seems to have been tossed for these newer names.
We picked our daughter's name totally randomly off the internet. We loved it so much, though. And actually continue to get so many compliments on it! I love hearing how other people pick their children's names.
I can't wait for the movie "Eat, Pray, Love" to come out..
Ok here go's
my first child was a boy Kyle, I had a guy in high school named Kyle and loved it and always knew I would name my first boy that, then when i had my second child I thought and thought about a "K" name if it had been a girl I would have named her Kristen, and the boy name was tough, one day I was watching Nascar and heard the drivers name Cale Yarbough I thought that sounded cute so I added a "K" and named him Kayle cute huh??
Kyle and Kayle, I never had that girl but I love there names so there you have it, I love hearing why people named there kids the names they choose!!
I love doing the "surnames" for names... esp. for boys. And, I love including a past name, somehow, from MY SIDE OF THE FAMILY (the guys freakin' get to pass down their last name for their eternity... still makes me mad).
SO, my daughter was named after my Nana and sister:
"Cecelia Cynthia" (and goes by "C.C.")
"Sawyer Schneider" (we were going to use Sawyer for boy or girl... he's a boy... and my maiden name is Schneider)
"Quinn Jameson" (Quinn represented my irish lineage... and not only does Jameson sound cool, but hubby's middle name is James... his bro's name is Jason... so Jameson to me was both "son of James" and "James and Jason", mixed
"Nolan Hoban" (just loved Nolan as an Irish surname... and Hoban is my Nana's maiden name)
There you have it!! Fun, fun!! Love your stories!
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