I’ve written about this before, but naming a child is HARD.
Oh sure, you’ve had that name for your future little girl picked out since middle school. You’ve written it in pretty handwriting a million times, and dotted the “i” with a heart. I get it. I did it too. I still do it, if we’re being honest.
And that’s all fine and dandy until said little girl is actually on the way, and then it becomes way more real life and less imaginary. Suddenly the name you loved feels a little juvenile… or made up… or dated.
The name you give your child has to fit. Does it “go” with your last name? What do the initials spell? Will kids pick on them because of their name? Do you go with family names, or classic names, or religious names, or hipster names, or vintage names, or pop culture names, or exotic names, or…? Does it flow with their siblings’ names?
Oh, and then your spouse gets an opinion. Which in my case, isn’t exactly helpful most of the time. Then everyone else THINKS they get an opinion.
Baby names are hard.
Since we are 99.9 percent decided on Baby C2’s name, I feel like I can give away my rejects. And sit tight – you might just hear C2’s name before June.
1. Virginia
Actually, I love the name Virginia. It was my grandmother’s name. But, Virginia Cotten? “Gin”ny Cotten? No, I can’t. Sorry, Grandma.
2. Athena
Mr. Cotten is a huge advocate for this name. He loves it. However, since I’m nearly certain this child was made in Athens, Georgia, I’m going to have to put my foot down on this one. “What are you named after?” “Oh, the town where I was conceived…”
3. Georgia
See names 1 and 2. Combine.
4. Aries
Why my husband loves this name, I may never know. Also, C2 is a Gemini.
5. Theodore
This was actually one of our top running boy names… until we realized The-o-Dore is essentially Dor-o-Thy reversed.
6. Courtny
Courtny Jr. for a boy? Can you do Courtny Jr. for a girl? How does that even work?
7. Pearl
Pearl was my great-grandmother’s middle name, and I actually fought for it as a middle name for C2 for awhile. That is, until I was reminded that some family friends used to have a cute bulldog named Pearl… who peed every time she got excited. Now I can’t get past the association as a dog name.
8. Brutus / Flash / Titan
Just… nope. You think I’m kidding, don’t you?
9. Rey
Mr. Cotten was all like, “Hey, what about Rey? R-E-Y?” and I was all like, “Yeah, that’s kind of pretty!” And then he was like, “Yeah it’s the new girl in the Star Wars movie!” Uh no.
10. Maxim
My husband. He picks the best names. *sarcasm* Seriously, this was his No. 1 name for a boy. Isn’t Maxim a nudey men’s magazine?
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I could go on and on for DAYS. And these are just the bad rejects… I didn’t even mention the names I entertained!
Let’s hear it – what baby names did you have to veto? How did you end up deciding on a name? Can you even guess what name we’re giving Dorothy’s sister? hint: part of it is a family name, and part of it is totally random.
When looking for a baby name, my now ex-husbad wanted to name our daughter Fallon-Marie Cerridwen Pandora Hall. I decided that way too many names. I liked the Cerridwen part so we kept that and so her name is Cerridwen Morrigan Hall. It’s still unqiue (like we wanted) but it is not too many names. Plus you can’t mix different goddess names from different cultures together. I know not many people know where her name comes from but it suits her. I cannot think of another name now that would suit the young lady she has become.
I feel the same way about my daughter, Dorothy. At first I was really apprehensive about giving her such an “old lady name,” even though she is named after my husband’s great-grandmother. Now, though, I can’t imagine her with any other name. It definitely suits her!
I feel ya! My husband insisted on Maybelle. Maybelle Mays? I think not. He also rallied for Buck. No.
Ok. Maybelle Mays is pretty terrible. I’m so glad it’s not just my husband! Haha! ๐
Hahaha I love this list! Husbands….
I vetoed naming my son Scott Allan foxIII! I want him to have his own identity and at the time he would have been the 5th significant Scott in my life. Also, mace windu (<- no joke!) which is also from star wars!
Courtny was even pushing for Courtny Jr. for a boy. I was like, “Didn’t you hate your name growing up? And you want to do that to your future son?” Of course, he answers with, “Well, I like my name now!”
Men.
Dave literally mentioned “Rey” last night. We were already thinking “Ray” for a middle name but he wanted to spell it with an E for the same reason Courtny did. Men…
Baby names are SO HARD to agree on! The other day Tim came home and we had this convo:
Tim: What do you think of the name Dev?
Me: You mean Devin?
Tim: No, I don’t like the name Devin, just Dev.
Me: That’s not even a name!
… and on it went.
The thing is that Tim is a DEVeloper which is where he got this bright idea in his head. He’s also suggested the name Dax (which is a software he works on) and Azure (another product he works with). I can only assume he’s doing all of his baby name brainstorming at work, and while none of these names are AWFUL, I am not naming my offspring after Microsoft products! End rant.
Omg. My husband is a product designer for a developer website, and has worked with software devs his whole career. I totally get this. Also, a dev at his company just named his kid Dax… no joke. I wonder if the wife has any idea that it’s a software term? Haha!
Lisa I have some friends do who named their first son Daxton and they call him Dax!
i had absolutely no idea just how hard naming a baby was. our daughter didn’t have a name until 2 weeks before she was born, and even after she was born, i was like so is this really the name we’re sticking with?! rey was also on our list of vetoed names! ha!
xo christina
From the sound of it, Rey has been on every dad-to-be’s name list this year!
I’ve wanted to name a son Henry for a long, long time. Love it. Wasn’t even going to be a discussion. Until I married a Ford… Henry Ford? Not so much!
Haha! There’s nothing wrong with Henry Ford unless you want car comments for the rest of his life! ๐ We get “red slipper” jokes all the time with a Dorothy… and they make me crazy. She is most definitely not named for The Wizard of Oz!
WHEN the day eventually comes that we decide to reproduce, we’re a-Okay on a boy name, UT so far my husband has vetoed every girl name I’ve come up with. He’s a fan of Ashley/Beth/Sarah/Courtney (aka every popular girl name from the late 80s/early 90s) and I’m definitely more of a fan of “older” names like Catharine, Evelyn, Lorraine, and Charlotte. Good thing we’ve got a while before we have to make the decision for real.
Laughing out loud at the reason behind Rey!
LOL to Theodore – I never even would’ve thought of that. Good thinking on your part! I heard of a baby named Maxim a few years ago and I thought the exact same thing! Looking forward to hearing what name you guys came up with!
My son was going to be named Brandon Lee which I still love. However after our son was born his father had a change of heart on this name. One name I overheard while managing at a restaurant that I worked for was Ashley and that stayed with me. So I suggested this when we were trying to decide in the hospital. At the time in 1979 this was considered a boys name mainly from the movie Gone With The Wind only I never saw the movie. We ended up naming him Ashley Richard. When he was in school, I wished at that time we would have named him Ashton as it sounded so much more masculine. He’s older now and he is fine with his name and he will forever be my son Ashley.