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Tuesday, April 1, 2008

It's A Girl

Those are 3 words I've never been able to utter. I seriously thought I should announce that I was pregnant with #4 for April Fool's Day, but ultimately decided I couldn't be that mean. Instead I'll talk about baby names.

Over the years, I've collected many a baby name. I wanted ten children so that I could name them all. I love the names I (I mean we...) chose for our boys. They are personally meaningful.

Levi Jefferson was given a biblical name and my great-great-grandfather's name (Levi) and also named after Thomas Jefferson.

Luke Monroe was given a biblical name (Luke), a president's name (Monroe) and named after my father and great-grandfather (Monroe).

Leif Benjamin (pronounced 'Lafe' by the way) was given the name Benjamin which covered the statesman (Ben Franklin), family (Uncle Ben and also Ben Franklin--a shirt-tail relative), as well as the biblical end of things. I just happened to love the name Leif which came in handy.

I never imagined that I would have three boys. I certainly didn't think I would have to keep up the 'L', biblical, presidential, familial names. Would you believe I spent many a night thinking of a 4th boy name 'just in case.' (I'm sure my family will believe it...) John pretty much covers the bases as a middle name. Landon, Larkin, London, Lincoln, Lachlan.... No worries, though. There are no plans in the works for a #4.

Colette was a steady first choice at the beginning of all 3 pregnancies. Colette Avary for 1 and 2. Lucy-Colette Adelaide for #3. Alas, no Colette.

Will someone please let me name their baby girl? Here is a list for you to choose from (in no particular order):

Adelaide (Adele)
Britta
Wren
Leisl
Colette
Lucy
Annika
Sylvie
Avary
Estella
Audrey
Willow

What are your favorite names?

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UPDATE: I forgot to give you a link to the coolest baby naming tool I've found on the web. The Baby Name Wizard's Name Voyager shows the popularity of any name over the last hundred years or so. Just type in any name or partial name and it shows up on the graph. Be sure to check out the numbers on the side that show the number of babies per million with that name. Sometimes the graph goes up to thousands, sometimes it appears in tens.

20 comments:

Dreams of a Country Girl said...

Well, baby #4 will be coming within a year probably...I AM NOT PREGNANT -- but I would like to be in a year. You can have all the input you can muster up. Although I am parttial to Caroline. My mom's name is Carolyn.

Marlana said...

I wanted to play the same April Fool's trick on my family and announce baby #3, but I decided it would probably not be so wise. My family is too baby crazy. However, my 15 month-old daughter's name is Audrey Elaina, so you can take back credit for that if you want. ;) Have a great day!

That Crazy Ajumma said...

I have just 2(both girls)and no more for the future.My favorite name,which was uncommon at the time,was Brittany.I chose that for my 1st cause I am a HUGE fan of anything 'England'.My 2nd,I wanted to name Harley or September,but the hubby didnt care much for either.I named her Hailey from previously watching a show about Haleys Comet.Had I had a Boy I wanted to call him Thomas Elliott .

5 Chicks and a Farmer said...

Okay, I'm so glad that someone else is as into names as I am. I think about names of children at least 5 times a day. I mean it.

I have 2 girls. Our first is Kaylyn Grace (named after my sister and I- Kayla & Lynsey= Kaylyn) and our second is Laney Rae. We call her 'Laney Rae' too. I wanted her to have a southern double name. It is crucial to tell people that you will be using both parts of the name when you introduce them for the first time to someone.

Since mostly all new parents say the first and middle name the first time they introduce their baby, I went ahead and through in the sentence "and we will be calling her Laney Rae" so people won't get confused. See I told you I'm really into names.

My other favorite girl names are:

Shelby
Abree (girl version of Abraham)
Kendall
Quincy
Reese
Emma Leigh
Ava (my niece's name)

I'm sure there are others. I am praying for a boy our next baby. I have begun to think about names for him. I need a 'J' name that is uncommon. We have friends with sons named Jackson, Justis, and Jude. So if you think of anything pass them my way. It never hurts to prepare!

Great post and topic. I always joke with my husband that I should be a professional baby namer because it is one of my favorite things to do.

Lyns

Heidi said...

Country Girl~ I'll be thinking about names that sound great with Caroline...

Marlana~ Your daughter's name is beautiful!

Mybigmouth~ Isn't it frustrating when you choose something original and every copies you! :) I love the name Haley (with various spellings).

Lyns~ Professional baby namer, LOL! That's what I should do. :) Glad you can relate!

I love the name Jackson, but I think it has been *really* popular lately. Too bad the name Jude is taken. It's one of my fav's. Judah is probably too close. I'm partial to Jefferson.

Going through the baby name sites, there isn't much other than those names. I like Jace (Greek, Healer). Hmm. I'll have to think on that one.

Laura said...

I'm constantly thinking of baby names, too. It's fun to imagine the little people who might wear them well.

With a last name like "Booz," we think long and hard about what will and won't work. (My family has had a hoot coming up with plenty that WON'T work!)

I love our daughters' names: Vivienne Grace ("Full of Life and Grace") and Lia Monet (pronounced "Leah Monay" and meaning "Herald of Good News that is Heard"). Since we have the French thing goin', maybe I'll steal your idea for "Colette"! Another beautiful French name is "Servanne", but we can't use it with our last name! :(

One of our favorite boy's name is "Stosh", which was my father's (Stanley) name as a boy. (Polish, God of Salvation Crowns Him) Others? Josiah, Jedidiah...

Barb said...

Okay, I was the bad daughter in law and posted an april fools pregnancy announcement. And it worked! Not 5 minutes after posting I got a call from my mother-in-law:"Uh, do you have anything to tell us...wait...wait...what...oh, you are so bad!" YES! I got the reaction I was hoping for!
We have 3 boys and 1 girl. Emma Kathryn. Named after her great-grandmother and I just love the name Emma (But not named after Jane Austen's). It means embraces everything and she truely does.
Other girl names
Tereza
Zofia
Isabel

Anonymous said...

We had problem finding a boy names. I like your names. My baby girl name is Alina Roth

Heidi said...

Laura~ Making a name fit with a last name (and the other names in the family) can make things tough. :) My best friend named her daughter Monet. This is the first time I've heard it anywhere else! You're welcome to use the name Colette. Sounds like it would fit right in, and I don't think we'll be using it...

I Was Just Thinking~ LOL! I can't believe you actually did it. :) My hubby emailed me and said he would have freaked at that post!

Kindra-At Home With K said...

Well I have 2 boys and I think I'm done...My 4 year old is Kellon and my about 10 month old is Taran. We wanted something a little different. If we had a girl we would of named her Scout. We fell in love with it while watching "To Kill a Mockingbird". But I think we are done...I guess never say never.:)

Anonymous said...

Before I even met my husband, I always wanted to have a boy first. Long ago, I had decided that his name would be Josiah (which means: Fire of the Lord, He heals). I just loved the story of King Josiah in the Bible. And then I met my husband and we ended up having a boy! Hubby loved the name Josiah and since I had picked it, he got to choose the middle name: Miguel (Spanish for Michael: Who is like God). Miguel is also my husband's brother's name. Then came baby #2, a boy, who I named Isaac (Laughter) and he chose the middle name: Ezequiel (Spanish for Ezekiel: God is my strength). We got pregnant again and miscarried, but we named that baby Alegria Corazon (Spanish for joyous heart or heart of joy). Not six months later, we got pregnant with baby #4,a girl who my husband named Aurora (Dawn or mouthpiece of God) and I gave her the middle name of Joy (my sister's name). And no, she was not named after Beauty and the Beast...lol! When we first started telling people her name, someone would inevitably think we named her after the Disney movie. I think I only saw it once and I definitely did not remember that the Beauty's name was Aurora.
With all of our children's names, we wanted something with great spiritual meaning and uniqueness. Come to find out, Josiah is not that unique any more. In one church we attended there were three others! One family even had a Josiah and an Isaac..lol! Haven't met anyone with an Aurora yet.
With our taking turns name choosing, we always agreed on each child's name. And we got this done long before we knew the sex of the baby...lol...we have 100% accuracy though! Thankfully, no one's name had to be changed!

JNG

Renee said...

So funny, because I just told my husband this past weekend that if we ever adopt (because I am certain that there will be NO more children from this womb!) I would name her Lucy or Susie. They just seem like names for happy, sweet girls. But Lucy is my very favorite! (And it would fit for us because we have "J" names for boys, and our girl has an "L" name). :) Very fun to think about!

Elise said...

Heidi, you had me going there for a split second. My mind read the title of your article, went racing ahead and I was all ready to send you a big congrats on your "news". But, the penny did drop.

Your three boys sure do have some good stories to tell about how their names were derived. I love the three criteria (if I can call them that): Biblical, in the family and presidential.

You wouldn't stick to another L name for a girl?

I love the name Lucy, I think it is so sweet. It is my mum's name (she is Italian and her name is actually Lucia).

It sure is fun dreaming up names. I have 13 weeks to go until our baby boy is here and we are finding it tricky to come up with an unusual, but manly sounding name. It makes for lots of fun discussions between my husband and I! We had already chosen a girl's name before we knew the sex of our baby. Oh well, there's always next time. I would dearly love to have three children, not that we mind what sex they are.

Beth said...

My sweet dauther is Ella Caroline.

Anonymous said...

e and t,

Talk about laying down the gauntlet! You actually need a name and you are telling all these wanna be professional baby namers this? I can't wait to come back tomorrow and see how many people want to help you name the baby.

You know....not only do people love to think of baby names and dream about baby names and talk about baby names....some people actually pay to do so! I remember hearing people selling the right to name their baby on ebay and they made big bucks! I am not in any way suggesting that....because no way can you just let anyone name your baby. And then what would you do with all of our suggestions? Oh yes....I love this "game" too and I have just a couple suggestions.

Sebastion
Abraham
Avery
Emory
Anderson

I have to go count sheep now. Sheep that will all have names, I daresay....and probably manly, unusual ones too! Let me know if you need more help....I wanna be a baby namer too!

Best of luck to you and the new baby.

Thanks Heidi....for the fun and for letting all of us "baby namers" out of the closet!

Shelly =)

Anonymous said...

My husband's name is Luke (Luke John) so I love that name. We also have 3 boys and with them, their middle names are all after fish! They had to be Australian native fish and (at my insistance) not sound 'fishy'! So we have Harry Bass, Charlie Archer and Angus Murray. Love a theme! Emma

Catherine Holman said...

I'm too old to need name for a baby girl. But, I'm always looking for old names for the people in my paintings. I like the name Pearl.
Cathie

Unknown said...

I always feel like I'm a day late and a dollar short with your posts! lol

I LOVE my kids' names:

Keeley Shae (named after Keely Shea Smith who's married to Pierce Brosnan. When I heard the name when I was 16, she was a botanist specialist on a talk show and was not married to him)

Teegan Anthony (boy. I've only heard of girl Teagan's since...with a's....but I still think it's a pretty unisex name and there are Teagues out there. Anthony is my husband's middle name as well as my dh's grandfathers middle name. There was NO WAY my dh would allow me to have any child's middle name after his.)

Tatum Makenna (my sister came up with this first name. I loved it. I also liked Makenna for no particular reason)

Holden Dekker (Holden because we were SO tired of trying to pick that perfect name and it was the best. My dh heard the name Dekker from a documentary about those flight ships...one of the "Top Gun's" nicknames was Dekker and he's loved it ever since. We made a deal that he could use it, but only as a middle name. Since Holden's been born, though, he's NEVER ONCE called him Dekker...he likes to call him Hodie.)

The other names we were thinking when I was pregnant: Brodie and Kaya.

BTW, Collette is my SIL's name!

That is all. :0)

Guy Davis said...

You might find this map of popular baby names useful in your search as well. It includes the same US data as the Name Voyager but also shows statistics for each state as well as many other countries.

Relyn Lawson said...

Oooh! I love names, too. I need to write a book or ten just so I can use them all. My daughter's name is Sloane. It's my great (x3) grandfather's last name. It is Celtic and means warrior, although I didn't know that when I chose it. I think it is beautiful and not too tough to say. If I had been given a second daughter, her name would have been Harper. As in Harper Lee. Maybe I'll get to name my granddaughter. I doubt it, though.