Thursday, August 2, 2007

the name game

Thoughts for Thursday this week:
Baby Names!!! My all time favorite topic!

Here are my questions...
Do you like your name?
Was there a name growing up that you wished was yours?
Did you/do you have your kids' names picked out when you were like 12?
Did you actually use those names?
Is there a story behind your baby's name?
Do you still love the name as much as you did the day you named him/her and has it just always seemed like "their" name?

I think I've always liked my name. Well, other than the fact that growing up I had two other Heathers in my class for a few years. Weird, because as an adult I haven't known that many Heathers. I do however remember wishing I had a name with a nickname. I dreamed of being Jessica... I thought the flexibility of being a Jessica, a Jess or a Jessie would be awesome! LOL! I never had any nicknames growing up and I was always jealous of people with nicknames; either real "names" or made up personal ones.

As for naming babies, I loved the name Kaitlyn (with the nickname of Katy or Kate) in my early 20's. I was set on it. Until I didn't have kids for like 7 more years and then the name was way too popular. By then I had seen a dozen Kaitlyns go through my classrooms.
I was also in love (and still am) with the name Mason. I would still use it if I could. Unfortunately, Mason Morrison doesn't really work for me.


We didn't know the sexes of our kids before they were born. So we had a short list of both names going into the hospital. We really had a hard time narrowing it down and had no idea what we would end up with. We had the middle names picked out, but the first names waited until we "met" our baby. We thought for sure Kathryn (Katy) Joy was our first pick for Savannah... Savannah wasn't even on the list. But as much as I loved Katy, when I held her I just didn't feel sure about it. Out of the blue we said what about Savannah; I remembered liking Savannah at some point. And we realized we loved Savannah Joy.
She was a Savannah Joy from the beginning. I used her name all the time... her full name quite often. I just loved the way it sounded. And it was so her.

Sawyer wasn't actually named for almost 12 hours. We had a girl name ready to go (and Savannah is still convinced we are going to have a Miah some day), but we just could not agree on a boys name. We finally narrowed it down to Sawyer or Seth. We really liked Seth but Savannah pronounced it "death" at the time and we weren't thrilled with that. So Sawyer Isaac* it was. (Ryan thought it was hilarious that Savannah means "a treeless plain" and Sawyer means "woodcutter". Like Sawyer is the reason there are no trees on the Savannah. Yeah, that's my husband's sense of humor for you!)
But a few days after we came home, I started having second thoughts. I'm pretty sure it was just my weird hormonal stuff, but I was convinced we named him the wrong name. I kept thinking he looked like a Brody. And I really liked that name. I kept wanting to call him Brody and I had to stop and make myself remember it's Sawyer. And then a few days later I decided I *loved* the name Landon and I was thoroughly disappointed that I hadn't thought of that a week ago. This was actually a very big deal to me. I eventually got over it and now Sawyer is most definitely Sawyer. And I love the name. I love that it's unique, but still a normal name and not over the top with trying to be original. And I love it when Savannah calls him her "SawBuddy".

*The story behind their middle names, since you asked LOL, is as follows. When we got pregnant with Savannah I was not thrilled with the fact. We had only been married for two months when we found out and we had planned on waiting a few years. I was not excited; I was very much caught off guard, and upset and scared. I just wanted to be married for awhile, I didn't want to be a mom yet. A few days later, we were with our small group from church and when we had a little prayer time, we asked them (without telling them yet) to pray for a situation that we were stressed out about, unsure about and not thrilled about. We asked that the Lord would take away those feelings of being out of control, unhappy and uncertain, and replace them with Peace and most of all His Joy for the situation.
After praying together, we left that evening feeling much more at peace about it. And on the drive home, Ryan said to me, "I believe we are having a baby girl and we will name her Joy." As funny as it sounds, I understood at that moment that it was all meant to be. As the months went on, obviously our joy built. Hence whatever girl name we went with, we knew it would be matched with Joy. If Savannah ever knows it wasn't originally our intention for her to join our family at that time, she at least will also know that we were excited and waiting for the Joy that she would be to us.
Sawyer's middle name Isaac, means "laughter". Not only did we want to in some aspects match his name with the meaning of Joy behind Savannah's, but laughter is probably the most fitting name for this kid. Little did we know how perfect that would be. Or maybe he is "laughter" because we named him "laughter"?

Be sure and leave your thoughts! And I don't care how long your stories are, I love any and all conversation about baby names!!
And if you're posting your own Thoughts for Thursday, make a note of that in your comment so we can follow you over there! So far we've got Kasey, Emilie, Nic and Jessica...

11 comments:

Katie said...

Well, I didn't mind my name growing up....even though I had two other Katie's in my class:
Katie S.-me
Katie W.
Catie B., that's how the teacher classified us...Ha!Ha!
My brother & a few close friends called me and still call me Kate, which I like. But, my name is Katie, not Katherine or Kaitlyn, and it really bugs me when people call me Katherine....what the?? Why would you call me Katherine...it's Katie(I guess because most people think Katie is short for something...)

As for baby names, oh my, where do I start.....well, I like more traditional names for boys:
Anthony(Toni)
Michael &
Gregory.... when we were pregnant, I was stuck on Michael for a boy, Ryan for a girl. And as you know, Don's best friends are Ryan, Mike & Mike....so he wasn't that crazy about those names, though he loves his friends he just felt strange about the only two names I was stuck on. Anyways, it turned out to be Donnie after my husbands sentimental breakdown in the delivery room, we now have DGH IV... such an old man's name, but it's perfect for our little guy, I love it for him... he's so not a Gregory or Michael...(though I still want Michael if we have a boy next time!)

For girls....I love unisex names...Ryan, Logan, Avery, Jade, Andy, Brooke, Sean... anything that goes both ways...But, I also have a few girly names I really like....Isabella (my absolute fav., **that will be Donnie's little sis if we have a girl**)Arianna, Sophia, Olivia

I do have to say, I'm not a big one for way out there names....Apple, CoCo, Q(we had a fifth grader last year with that name, nope not short for anything....weird, I know!!) some of the hollywood names, I just don't get it....are those supposed to be cute???

Okay, I've gotta stop, this is getting ridiculous!

K.M.L said...

Growing up and still to this day, I love my name. Not many (at least none that I know) spell their name K.a.s.e.y. I have seen Casey, Kaci, Kacey but I think mine is unique! ha! There was only 1 other person in high school that had the name Kaci and he was a boy. I thought I was cool in middle school so instead of spelling it the correct way, I spelled it K.C. Not many people could just use initials.

As for baby names, I always had names picked out. I knew from my family (my mom has 10 bros and sis') that I could not use any of their names or their kid's names. Now it is getting trickier because my cousins are all having kids and I am going to have to come up with something that no one has. :)

For girl names I have a hard time coming up with them. I like Charlotte, Mikaela (a cross between Mike and Kasey, but Mike doesn't like this name and it seems that everyone has this name!)I also like Gabriella and Natalia. For boy names I like Nathan, Nicholas, Noah, Gavin, Jonathan.

I guess when we have our kiddos we might not like any of those and will just have to wait and see "who they are" before naming them too!


My thursday thought is about engagements...so head on over there!

Anonymous said...

I named my future children like most little girls do...but none of the names stuck with me, so when it came time that didn't factor in, we just started from scratch.
We decided on Alyssa's name quite easily, and then Hailey's as well. We were soooo stuck with boy's names, it's a good thing we ended up with girls or we'd have a "baby boy Porter" runnin' around...lol.

I hated my name around the time I started middle school. It just seemed like EVERYONE was named Jessica. About the only thing I did like about my name was having one that was easily shortened for nicknames.

I was afraid of giving my girls popular names, but it seems like pretty much all names go thru a popular phase. When we named Alyssa, I knew only one other Alyssa...now I know about ten!

Nicole said...

I neither hated nor loved my name growing up. There were two other Nicole's in school with me.. Like Katie, I was Nicole B., and there was Nicole V. and Nicole Z. At home and with family, I've always been called Nic (which was shortened from Nic Nic thank goodness!!) and I actually prefer Nic to Nicole, however in school I never knew how to "transition" over to Nic after being Nicole B. for sooo long. The only name I "HATE" is Nicky/Nicki/Nikki OMG it reminds me of a stripper. I can not stand being called Nicky, although there are a few people that do call me that occasionally and I know its more of a loving nickname, so I put up with it. I hate it when strangers call me Nicky though..> HATE IT.

As for kids names. Oh lord did I have names picked out! When i was little I used to have a notebook of names, just any name I could collect. I love names. I'm a dork, I know. As a teenager, I can't fully remember what names I loved, but I remember in highschool I liked the name Morgan for a girl and Trevor for a boy. And, sickly, went through that "creative" name phase and we (as in Ryan and I) liked Trey "Treyjan" WTF were we thinking?? Thank God we didn't end up pregnant highschoolers cause we'd have an 8 year old Trejan WTF name is that kid running around HAHA!

Anyhow, once we were actually adults and married and thinking about kids, we loved Rylee for a name, Ry for Ryan and Lee for my middle name. Rylee Morgan. However, Rylee/Riley/Ryleigh became really popular and I really hated the thought of her having to be called Rylee B. all through school like I did.

Once we were pregnant, our names were Ava Rylee (which, is SUPER popular now) and Porter ______ . Ava was really the only girl name we could agree on. I loved Ellery, as she could be Ellery in school which is not that popular, and Ella/Ellie at home. But Ryan vetoed that. Porter we both just immediately loved and agreed on, but I was nervous about what other people would think about it, so I spent part of my pregnancy trying to find another boys name that I loved as much as Porter. I really liked Hudson Cole and Pierce ________, but they just didn't seem "right". We did go through a short phase of loving Logan, but quickly nixed that when we realized how popular it was both for boys and girls.

Anyhow, Porter it was, we decided that that was just his name.. it was the only name that felt right. We had a really hard time with the middle name, though. It was going to be Porter Allen after my great great great grandma who died last year at 104 years old, but Porter Allen seemed so "old". We finally decided on Porter Evan, as "Evan" seemed to bring a little "hip, trendy" to the name, I guess. I also loved the meaning of Evan, which is a form of John, and means "Gift from God" which we/I truly felt he was after losing our first pregnancy and being so lucky to get pregnant so quickly with Porter.

Wow, how is that for a long comment!!

Kristyn said...

Well my name did not bother me growing up other than the fact I never got anything with my name on it. My dad decided to spell Kristyn with the y instead of e or i to make it more unique. For my entire life I have always had my name spelled wrong on anything possible. It was more or less having Sprangel for a last name which was also quite hard for people to spell. Needless to say I was lucky my diploma from high school had both names spelled correctly. I am now Mazingo which isn't too bad. As for nicknames I am called Kris or Krissy. It is funny because there are only select people who I am okay with calling me by these nicknames. I refuse to go by Krissy in public but my cousins and some aunts and uncles still call me Krissy. Otherwise I had an okay experience with my name, unlike my best friend Jessica in which we had 4 or 5 of them in our class.
As for baby names right now we have been throwing them around because we want to start trying to concieve in the near future. Like all of you I had names for my babies as a young girl I think they wer Vada(My Girl inspired) and Carson. Now Jason and I have pretty much decided on Hadley Sidney Elisabeth for a girl. Funny part is we got the name Hadley from a Barbie movie Cloey got for Christmas. Sidney is in honor of my Grandpa who lost his battle with cancer last year(thats why it is spelled in the traditional boy spelling) and Elisabeth just flowed with the name. Finding a boy name has been a great challenge. We finally decided on Evan Scott. Evan for a teacher who has been very inspirational to my husband from high school and still to this day. Scott comes from Jason's middle name. Now I might be like you Heather and when we have the baby(we aren't going to find the sex out) and when the baby is in my arms it could change the whole name completly. I guess time will only tell. Great topic, I too love to talk about baby names.

MacKenzie Leigh said...

I absolutely love being MacKenzie Leigh. But people ALWAYS mispell my name. Even my relatives! AGH. I have yet to this day met a girl my age named MacKenzie. I told my mom that she started a trend b/c now there are a TON of like 10 and under MacKenzie's. The only thing with having such a long name is...I have a million nicknames. I pretty much answer to anything, including "hey you". My mom calls me Kenz, my dad calls me Mazee, my sister calls me Kenzie, and Jeff calls me ChiChi. haha (long story short on the ChiChi name. Jeff's friend calls me Squirrel since I'm little and have a high pitched laugh/giggle, which in turn Jeff's mom calls squirrels ChiChi's to her dog...so Jeff calls me ChiChi. He rarely calls me MacKenzie...usually if he's ticked) And some not name associated ones are: Shorty, Little Foot, and "The Married Girl" LOL.

Jeff and I knew right away what we wanted to name our baby if it was a boy. He would have been named (and if our next child is a boy) Dominic James. Dominic b/c Jeff loves it and James b/c it is his middle name-his grandpa's name. Fortunately, I love the name Dominic...but like how I prefer my whole name v.s. a nickname he will NEVER be called Dom or DJ. EVER.

As for our girl names...we had a mile long list. Nevaeh Joelle was first. Adrie Anne second. And Jocelyn Fae third. Jeff and I chose Jocelyn's name b/c of the movie A Knights Tale. The leading lady is Jocelyn. He really liked it, as did I. But he came up with it. And then I threw in Fae...and tada! A perfect name! She already has nicknames too. Joss, Baby J, and JFae. lol. I think Jocelyn somewhat picked her own name. Because I started to get worried that at 6 weeks to my due date we still didn't have a name for her. So on Sunday we finally decided at like 11pm as we went to bed. Then on Monday she decided the name was good enough to come 6 weeks early! :) (I'm pretty sure I wrote a book. haha)

Heather S. said...

Great topic, Heather! I love talking about names! I must say, you have a great name! lol! I always liked my name just fine. I didn't know many Heather's until I went to college. Just on my floor my freshman year there were 4, I think.

My girls, Norah and Lucy, were both named after family members. I always knew I would have either an Ella or Norah - after my grandma, Eleanor. Norah's middle name is Rae, after my grandpa, Ray. Lucy is named after Kevin's great-grandma. We went back and forth as to whether or not we needed to stick with a family name or not. We had settled on Hildi, after Kev's grandma, Hildreth, but about 4 days before my c-section, he decided that he wasn't set on that name. So, Lucy it is! She was born May 1st so Kevin really wanted her middle name to be Mae. Norah Rae and Lucy Mae - sounds a little silly together, but oh well!

We didn't know what we were having, so we should have had boys names picked out, but we just weren't set on anything. We like Sam, Carter, Isaac - but nothing was definite.

Oh, and ironically, Norah and Lucy both mean "light." We didn't know this until after we named Lucy.

I love to hear how other people came up with their kids names!

Anonymous said...

Having the name Lina growing up as a child was a pain in the bottom (I'll help keep the ratings clean) I was named after my great Grandnother, which is an honor, but the name is one that NO ONE ever gets right!
As for childrens names-I had a few picked out in the early stages of my pregnancies, but was never sure until I met the little ones. Emily Kaye; Emily was such an unusual name & no other child had it, so it seemed in 1994-then I turn around & every where you look there were Emily's. She is named after her Grandmothers. Lydia Marie; ummm,bedrest & VH-1 movies that rock-watching the movie Beetlejuice & the name just jumped out @ me. She was going to be a Sophie or an Isabelle! Isaac Michael; his name was originally going to be Macklin Michael-but I had him the same day hurricane Isabelle was happening & we had it on TV & I said if this is a girl it will be Isabelle & the nurse suggested if a boy we name him Ivan or Isaac. After I delivered my husband named him Macklin & then came back & asked me if I minded that we change his name? Now looking back-I much prefer Isaac :)

Anonymous said...

I have alway liked my name well enough. Even though there are many, many Jessicas around today, as I was growing up, I didn't know any. I liked that. As a child I was known to everyone as Jessie. That's okay too. But when I went to college, I started to introduce myself as Jessica. I just wanted a more mature name. Now most of my family still calls me Jessie, but everyone post high school calls me Jessica. Every once in a while a complete stranger calls me Jess, and this rubs me wrong. They don't even know me, and they're shortening my name already. I completely don't mind friends or family calling me Jess.

As for the kids' names, when John and I were early married, we had Emily and James picked out. We thought Emily was too popular when Grace was born, so we nixed that off the list. We just both liked the sound of Grace, and its common meanings, so it stuck. Now there are tons of Graces too, but when she was born, we didn't know any. Still, at least where we live, there aren't any others in her age group.

When we had the boy, James just couldn't work because John didn't want to call him James or Jamie, and I didn't want to call him Jim or Jimmy, so we had to nix that one too. We almost had Jack, which I love still, but John said we'd have to name him John and call him Jack, and he didn't want a junior. I still don't think that makes any sense, but that's in his family history. I like the name Ethan, but there are several of those even in his peer group. That I don't like. We didn't want that. Sometimes you have no idea that you are thinking similarly to so many people out there when you think you're being unique. Very strange.

Now we have Alice Gertrude. That's the one that comes with questions and strange looks. John and I have both read books we loved with characters named Gert or Gertie. That was an easy decision for us, probably the easiest one, interestingly. The problem was, as it came closer to her birth (the only one we knew the sex of) we would lay awake in bed at night and say, "Can we do this to her? What if she hates us for it?" We were going to name her Gertrude Alice (Alice after John's Grandmother), and we decided to flip flop it at the last minute. We named her Alice Gertrude. We still planned on calling her Gertie, and we do. But then John started calling her Alice quite often. I questioned him on it a couple times and he replied, "I don't want to analyze it. It's her name." So now we throw both around. She responds to both, much to the amazement of many adults we encounter. I think it's more confusing to them, really.

The one other thought I have is unrelated to me and my family, but I find it interesting that so many people like to spell their kids' names in unique ways, even if it's a common name. That seems like setting them up for a lifetime of irritation. But who knows, maybe that makes them feel special. I don't know.

Oh, and I did encounter a boy named Godfather once. ?!?

Nicole said...

Hey, check out the blog I found. http://thebabynamewizard.ivillage.com/parenting/

Nicole said...

One more site...

http://www.nymbler.com/nymbler/

I typed in Porter, and Ellery came up.

Mena also came up, which reminded me that I really liked the name Sela Brooke and Mira ________ before we knew that P was a boy... but Ry didn't care for them.

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