A rose by any other name...

One of my favorite parts about having a baby had to be picking out the names. Since I was a little girl, I would obsess over what names I wanted to give to my child. I am not sure why I did this; I guess I just like names.

My husband and I had very different ideas when it came to names. I was more “This sounds good and so does that! And that!” while he hated every name I liked.

With our daughter, I made a long list of names that I liked. He crossed out all but two: Ellie and Sophie. I picked Ellie.

With our son, we agreed on a girl’s name pretty quickly but couldn’t agree on a boy’s name to save our lives. My main choice happened to be a “color” name (Grey) while his (Ash) was after a character in a cheesy movie.

Every day, I’d bring up the topic of names and every day, we’d argue over it. I thought his name (Ash) was too out there, he thought it was cool. My names (Jonah, Henry) reminded him of someone he’d rather beat up than father.

It was an uphill battle, that’s for sure. I finally gave up my hopes of having a baby boy named Jonah or Jonas and agreed to compromise on the only name we both could like: Sam.

Be careful who you tell about your choice of names, however. I had one friend that would tell everyone she knew one of the first choices in the Great Name Search during our daughter. This name was never seriously considered for more than a few seconds, but she felt the need to tell everyone and let them give their opinions.

So, my advice is simple: Unless you really want to hear what people think, keep your mouth shut until the big day. It is much harder to insult a name if it is attached to a living baby.