The Name Game

When we had Charlie, the name decision was easy. If we had a boy, it was going to be Charlie. If we had a girl, it was going to be Charlotte. Neither one was really up for debate or discussion, they were both family names and were pretty much 100% set.

Nearly 5 years later, we're having a girl who obviously can't be named Charlotte. Well, obviously to husband, not as obviously to me. Sure, it would be kind of odd, but I still love the name, and it's still a family name on MY side, so we'd have both family trees well represented. But it's off the table because husband doesn't want people to think he's in any way like George Foreman. Ok, that's fine.

So I made a list of names, pulling from favorite literary characters and distant branches of the family tree and names that I had heard and filed away over the years. And then I made a second list of names, and a third, and used a site called Nymbler where you can put all of your favorite names in the search engine and it brings you back a new list of additions that have the same style as the ones you already know that you like, so that you can continue adding to the list of possibilities. And then I brought that final gigantic list to the husband. And he started vetoing and crossing things off left and right. And I was kind of sad, because some of those names were good names, but of course it's important to agree on such a big thing like the name of your child. So I brought him another list  - which may have included some of the same crossed-off names from the first, just to see if he was paying attention (he was) and if he had changed his mind (he hadn't). And at the end of the lists and the crossing offs and the discussions and the debates, we're down to two names that are very promising. Two very different names, though, which means there will probably be no final decision made until we meet her in 12ish weeks and see which one she looks like. And then I started thinking about middle names (which, hi Charlie, I think I get more say on, because our first child is 100% named after you, after all) and decided which ones I liked best. And so I've been thinking about our child and what her name will be and didn't ever really stop to write out the initials, but then I did. And we're either going to have an LAG, an EKG, or an EGG. Lucky girl.