The Name Game
I tried on my wedding dress 10 times before I bought it. Topher and I looked at 35 apartments before deciding on our first. While we were shopping for baby furniture, a friend sarcastically asked if we’d been to every store up and down the Eastern seaboard. We tend to deliberate, weighing all of our options over and over before deciding. It’s a trait as individuals and as a couple that we willingly own up to.
The thing is, when we finally make a decision, it’s typically a solid one. I loved my wedding dress (and still do, in hindsight). We lived in our Pine Street apartment for five years and only left it to buy our house. And the baby furniture is cozy and just right.
In the face of one of the biggest decisions we’ve had to make–choosing a name for someone–we took advantage of all nine months to consider, eliminate, add, subtract, mix and finally match.
At week 39, we’re near certain we have a name (first and middle) for either a boy or a girl.
Picking a name wasn’t easy, but it was much more gut-driven than I anticipated. The pages of our baby names books aren’t nearly as tattered as I thought they’d be. We scratched names that we both liked off the list because they were already accounted for in our families. Others got the bump because one of us associated it with someone we knew in the span of our lives who made us dislike the name for being a dislikable person. Our list of silly and often ridiculous names was longer than the list under serious consideration.
We haven’t kicked options around with family or friends, figuring it’s best to shield ourselves from the reactions, opinions and baggage a slew of other people would bring to the table. Ultimately, we’re going with the names that feel right to us and we’re trusting that our decision-making strategy will serve us as well for the name of our child as it has for other big choices in life.
Besides, everybody will love the name Brunhildegard Batilda Desmond or Englebert Rumple Desmond.
Just kidding. (Apologies to anyone considering those. See? That’s why you don’t ask for other people’s input!)
Tags: baby names
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February 26th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Tara, you crack me up! Great name choices. Tell Toph I’m surprised he didn’t go with Charlie Fartberry Desmond.
February 26th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
I can’t wait to meet young Dweezlebat Salumibeet.
February 26th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
You could always go the Southern route and pick family names. The first question people ask about new babies down here is “who’s she named after?” I am the fourth person in line with my name (I now have a baby cousin making the fifth). My father is a junior, my brother is named the shortened form of my grandfather’s name and his son is a junior. My aunt has my grandfather’s name and passed it on to her daughter. Got that? 11 people, 3 names. we never get confused.
February 28th, 2010 at 10:45 am
in case Toph forgot – Auntie Hux was actually Hulda Fleer
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:58 pm
I vote for Brigid. ; )