The name recos! I am drowning in them. Drowning in the kindness and creativity and…okay, a few kind of weird ones.
I can’t believe the degree to which people–lurkers even–have opened their hearts, minds, and baby naming books to help out a poor, disfunctional infant-namer and her contrarian partner.
I wish I could respond to each of you individually. But then I’d just feel guilty, like I could have spent that time coming up with more names.
So allow me to provide a baby naming FAQ to address some of the general issues:
1) Do you want to honor a relative?
I will tell you my options are limited, me being a Jew and all. While gentiles are blessed with proud, strong family names that pass muster in today’s society, my people are sort of stuck with Irvings and Hetties and Hortenses. Still, we may have an idea or two.
2) Okay so give us the name – or at least the initial.
[edited to add: This refers to the name of deceased family member to honor - NOT the name of the child which we do not have]
Can’t. Family reading. Warring factions. Montague/Capulet level stuff.
3) What about Kayleigh?
I regret that I cannot accept alternaspellings of names. It’s not personal, it’s just that they will revoke my New York City residence status according to city bylaw 188734.16.
4) I always liked names with lots of Ys where vowels should be.
I’m so happy for you!
5) Can’t you just pick a name and tell Nate…tough? Hahaha
Um, no. It doesn’t work that way around here.
6) But you’re the one giving birth!
Stop making a good case.
7) That doesn’t seem fair.
Welcome to my world
Do you have any favorite names from when you were a kid?
Debbi. Which is one more outstanding reason why 15 year-olds should not be having children.
9) Hey, I gave you like 7 great names. What about those?
I have 7 great friends who have all used those 7 great names.
10) Hey, I gave you a great name too!
Yeah, that was the name of the woman Nate slept with before me, also referred to as “the herpes scare girl”
11) Nate doesn’t really want to name her Clinton Portis does he? He’s being funny? It’s a joke?
Yes he’s being funny and no, it’s not a joke.
12) I like the idea of a theme – Thalia and Clio is so cute.
Indeed. But unfortunately, an advertising creative naming her kid Clio is like an actor naming her kid Oscar. Only far more gross.
13) What does Thalia have to say?
She’s sticking with Apple. She’s been very consistent on this.
14) Hey, where’d my suggestion go? I know I posted one.
Take it as a compliment that I liked it. I just can’t have any evidence of it anywhere, or Nate will kill the name – far be it from him to ever say his daughter’s name was a suggestion from some blog geek.
68 shards of brilliance… read them below or add one
Here is my last & greatest suggestion for a unique name:HarolynHarolyn, my sister-in-law’s godchild, was voted Miss USS New Jersey in WW2 – here’s the story:http://www.ussnewjersey.com/voyl_07b.htm
You are giving me a complex. I am a Jennifer. I moved to Italy where I am the only Jennifer and for the first in my life I call a friend and say, “This is Jennifer.”Please, for the love of your unborn child, do not name her Madeleine or Ava or Emma or any of those. They are lovely names. So is Jennifer. But it sucks to share with half the country.You got some great suggestions. I wish I had more, but alas. If my son had been a girl, I would have named him Juniper. (That was before Sweet Juniper! Now the name is taken, at least in my book.) Someone suggested Iris, Georgia and Gemma. All names I like very much.Good luck. I’m sure you’ll find the right name for her.
You just crack me up. Oh congrats on your Top Mom blog award. very cool. So happy for you.
See that line? Go WAY over it. (And this is good), just name her Blogger. Think of the confusion. “I was out with Blogger today…”“Your blog?”“No. Blogger.”“The site?”“My kid.”“Who is your kid?”“Blogger!”“You are making no sense.”Classic material for a blogger. Or a Blogger.Hey, gimmie a break. I AM a JENNIFER.
Just be careful of “The Katies.” I was just talking to a woman who has a daughter named (pretty normal, old-fashioned) Katie. She is on a soccer team with EIGHT other Katies or derivitives thereof: Katelynn, Caitlynn, Katrin, Kayleigh, Cally, Calista, Kaylynn, etc. All the kids have nicknames or they don’t know who is being called on during the game. Holy friggin’ moses.
When I was 15 my name of choice was Tamela. Seriously. Or if they were boy/girl twins, Britt and Brett.That was before my drug years, so I don’t even have a good excuse.
Hey Crouton Boy is not a blog geek… He and Sarah helped us come up with < HREF="http://motherwoman.blogspot.com/2006/07/this-just-out_17.html#links" REL="nofollow">this<>
I thought of another one. I am only sharing this with you because I like you. I love this name for a girl but I could never use it because my husband would never be able to pronounce it correctly. Still, I don’t ever share it with anyone. This is the first time. Tate.
Liz, you’re totally cracking me up. I admit I just learned about the honoring a relative by using an initial thing (there aren’t a lot of Jewish people in small-town Iowa where I grew up, so I’m totally handicapped here), but that does add a level of skill to babynaming that I didn’t have to think about. You came up with Thalia, which rocks, so I’m sure you secretly already have this totally killer name and are now just torturing us by giving us something to do other than work. Think about what to name your kid! ha! I love it.
You do realize that after all of this discussion, there’s going to be even MORE discussion after you have the baby and give her a name – whatever name that turns out to be…
When we tell people that my son’s middle name is Walter, they always ask who we named him after. Naming the second was definetly harder, we had already used up our favorite name so coming up with another was not fun.I really like Naia, which is my neice’s name. I like to call her Naia Papaya.
I don’t have any baby name revelations, but leave it to you to teach me a new word.“Recos.”I love it. Is that what all the young kids are saying these days? Damn, I feel so out of it.
“herpes scare girl”[weeping, wheezing]
Ok– I’m quite pathetic. I’m lurking through your comments section for baby boy names. Sad, sad, sad. (I realized that I don’t know if Thalia goes by your or Nate’s last name?!) I liked Finn until put with our last name (stop laughing). And liked Penn. Yes, my son, the artic bird. Frig. That’s almost as bad as Richard Johnson (I worked with him; we referred to him as Dick Squared).
Audrey, Elise, Carys, Caroline, Cecilia, Violet, Acima, Alessandra, Keely, Sabine, Owen, Riel, Emily,Lorelai, Siri
I have a (Dutch) friend Thalia, whose sisters are called Rosa and Carmen. Such pretty names!I also like Davina or Davita (did you ever read Chaim Potok’s Davita’s Harp? sigh…), Vivianne, Celeste, Germaine, Naomi, Leah, Daphne, Matthea, Salomé, Damaris, Elisa, Rivka, Nora, Thirza, Yara… And I absolutely love Noa (not Noah). It’s a very popular (Hebrew > http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Noa) name for Dutch girls (top 20), but I don’t think it’s in the American top 1000.They’re all classics, but not overused like the Sophie’s, Emma’s, Emily’s, Hannah’s and Olivia’s of this world.
You can use Iris even though I did. ; ) And I used it before I knew Jude Law did. But he’s hot so it’s cool.
Someone’s probably always said these and/or you’ve thought of them and/or you rejected them but I just thought of (flower-name wise, which is probably just an example, not really something you want):HyacinthAzaleaDahlia (this was one of my faves, but Super Dad ended up vetoing it at the end)That was more disclaimer than comment, but there ya go.