What to name our baby

runamyrun · #1 02-06-2008, 03:46 PM

With our other kids, it seemed so much easier to pick their names. By the time we had our ultrasound, we would pretty much be set on what their name would be. This time has been so much harder. We are having a little girl (our third girl), and it has been hard to agree on a name. Today DH and I finally sat down and picked three names we both like. DH doesn't feel very strongly about a particular one and figures that he will get used to whatever we pick. I like all three, obviously, but two of them are my favorites, and one of them I can really picture being in our family. I am totally a planner and love to have their name picked out before they are born. I officially have 11 weeks left, but my girls were early so it could be only 8 or 9 weeks away. I am just curious about what other people think of these names. Tell me what you think, but please be nice. And for those of you who know our family, which name do you think would fit the best with our other kids?

Ava
Gracie
Sadie

Erudite · #2 02-07-2008, 10:57 AM

Hmmm...I love name picking! If we could, I'd have more kids just to pick their names.lol! These are lovely, lovely names! My personal favorite on the list is "Ava" just because I have a good friend by that name and it's my DH's grandma's name. It has really good associations for me.

I love the other two names as well, but you know what would keep me from using them? Their popularity. With all our kids we tried to pick names that were not the most popular, because my DH and I are both named the most popular names of our eras. I want my kids to have not-weird names that no one else has. For example, one of the names on our list for our 9yo was Hannah...and it turned out to be the most popular name in 1998 in Utah...so she would have been in a crowd of other Hannahs. Also, "Alexandra" was suggested for my 7yo, but you can't believe the number of 7yo "Lexies" out there, so we are really glad she has a name that is unique, but not weird.

Anyway...that's how I would choose. Look over the most popular names from 2007 and avoid them! On the other hand, they may not be popular where you are. I just know there are several baby "Sadies" and "Gracies" in our ward.

Similar (as in having some history and depth, but are sweet and lovely) names that don't seem as well-used are "Lucy", "Lily", "Ellen", and "Camille". Just throwin' those out there.

See how I love names?

Erudite · #3 02-07-2008, 10:59 AM

PS I can't remember your other kids' names, so I can't think how the name would fit into the family.

runamyrun · #4 02-07-2008, 11:28 AM

Growing up, I hated how popular my name was. I think it was #2 when I was born. When we started picking out names for our kids, I wanted something that wasn't too popular and not weird. Ironically, all of our kids' names have been in the top 20 for the year they were born. Fortunately, I haven't known too many kids with their names. Maybe the names were more popular in other places in the state or U.S. There may be girls with these names that live around here, but I don't know them. With our daughters, I really loved the name Madison, with the nickname of Maddie. I ended up not naming our daughters that because it was too popular.

I love the name Lily and would be really tempted to use it, but with our last name she would be too much of a flower!

Erudite · #5 02-07-2008, 11:49 AM

And I bet my name was #1!

LOL...yes, I didn't think of your last name with Lily. Camille has nearly the same problem, but not as many people associate it with the Camilla flower. More associate it with the wife of Pres. Kimball, I think. On the other hand...she'd only be "Lily" flower until she married...then her name is something else, if you really like "Lily."

I like it too, but for what I PMed you about, it didn't ever make a list.

Another consideration we used in picking names was that they couldn't rhyme with each other. I grew up with "ee" form of my name (if that makes sense), the childish form of my name, AND a Wendy and Becki. The 3 names rhyme, so when you call one of the names, it's really hard to tell who is being called. PLUS I also have a sister named Karen and one named Marin. Sigh...no end of rhyming going on. They hate that their names rhyme to this day, where my other two sisters have all gone to forms of their names that don't rhyme. We call Wendy "Dub", and Becki "B" and I use the full version of my name.

Well, I still like Ava the best! But let me tell you...we didn't name our 9yo. She did. We were all set to name her Hannah. I'd even started calling her that in my mind before she was born. My DH did too. But when she came, and I held her in my arms for the first time, I got the very strong impression that her name was not Hannah. And so I asked HER what it was. And the correct name came to my mind. My DH, who'd been out of the room, came back and I told him what had happened. The name she selected had been on our list (we developed a list of 5 possible names for each child), so it was easy to switch, but she did end up with a perennially popular name...just not the most common. So I tell you this story for you to consider that this child may have an opinion on what her name is. You might ask her.

Dia Minha · #6 02-07-2008, 04:02 PM

Ava is my favorite too and I think goes with your other girls' names very nicely. It is very close to my youngest daughter's nickname, Eva.

Erudite, I love the fact that you asked your daughter what her name should be. I had the hardest time with my youngest daughter, because DH was set on one name and I on an other. After she was born I tried calling her by each name and I swear her eye twinkled when I called the right one. We have never tried to name our babies before they were born and always waited to see what they looked like. We have always come up with a list of names we like, but have not settle on one until after they are born. However, with our 4yr. old, I really liked the name Naomi and somehow the kids caught on to that and called her Naomi even before we knew she was a girl and it stuck. We had a list of other names, but none of them ever quite worked. Of course it could have had more to do with the fact that DH was late picking us up from the hospital and I filled out the birth certificate myself, but he got to name the first three so it was about time I got to name one.

I love naming babies as well. The name I would love to use if I had another girl is Adelai or Adelaide. I don't really like the sharp "d" sound at the end, but I don't like how it looks spelled out with out the d and we could always soften it. And of course her middle name would be Joy. That way I would have my Faith, Hope, Grace and Joy.

My other favorites are Daniella, Adeline, and Marjorie.

natickgirl · #7 02-07-2008, 08:42 PM

RAR, I don't know you or your family, so take this all with a grain of salt.

From your choices, I like Gracie, or rather, Grace best. I have a niece named Graycie & it is cute for a little girl, but I wonder if she'd prefer Grace when she gets older. I know several baby Ava's. It seems to be the new Hannah...refreshingly old-fashioned, but will soon be very trendy. (I also had a bad experience with someone named Ava.) I really like Sadie & I don't know too many of them, but maybe it's a more popular name where you live.

My husband & I had a terrible time choosing names for all 3 of our kids! We both had uncommon, old-person sounding names growing up & didn't want to burden our kids with that. We also didn't want names that could be shortened into goofy nicknames, or be too "young" when they matured. As it turned out, we ended up naming our 2 girls two of the most popular girl names. Maybe they'll resent us for that, who knows. (Our 2nd daughter's name was changed from the one we had chosen--a less popular one--because it didn't fit her. We found out later that the name we chose was meant to be in our family.)

Good luck. Everyone has her own opinion, as evidenced by the responses & by the variety of names all around us. I guess it just comes down to what YOU like & what you feel best suits your baby when she arrives.

Erudite · #8 02-08-2008, 09:20 AM

I have a niece named Adalaide and her twin sister is named Isabel. And I have a brand new niece (she's a week old today), the twins' baby sister named Greta. Isn't "Greta" lovely? Natickgirl nailed it when she said that "refreshingly old-fashioned" was in. My kids' names are just like that too. Love them!

Another two in this same vein, that I would have named another daughter is "Charlotte" or "Caroline"... not-common, but not-weird too.

PhillyGirl · #9 02-08-2008, 02:44 PM

I vote Ava; for what its worth.

**5ft Diva** · #10 02-08-2008, 06:33 PM

I think Ava is a beauitful name. E has told me about her friend Ava and I fell in love w/ that name once I heard it. I had never heard that name before. I also like the name Caroline. I also like the name Elizabeth. I also like the name Grace. BS would never go for any of those.

Erudite · #11 02-10-2008, 07:17 PM

Well, RAR...I'm not sure if you were worried about the popularity thing or not, but just in case you are..."Ava" is #5 in the US in 2006. Just thought I'd share since I was goofing off in looking for names for 5D.

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#5 in this list too.

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runamyrun · #12 02-11-2008, 01:49 PM

I'm not too worried about the popularity thing unless maybe it was the first or second most popular. At least I don't know very many girls with these names, so hopefully it wouldn't be annoying like it was for me and you. As far as too much rhyming, Ava ends with the same letter as our youngest daughter, but the other names don't rhyme with any of our kids. Growing up we had Jenny, Amy, Cami and Brad. We always knew when my mom wanted my brother, but when she wanted one of the girls, all we heard was the "ee" sound.

Right now Gracie and Ava are my favorites. Gracie has been my favorite name for a while. At first I really thought Grace would be a cute name, but it doesn't sound right with our last name. When I had been thinking of Grace, I figured her nickname would be Gracie. When I saw that people were naming their babies Gracie, I thought it sounded perfect. My husband feels that it is a cute name for a child, but he isn't so sure about when she grows up. I figure that my name ends in the "ee" sound, so what is wrong with Gracie? Plus, it is becoming popular, so by the time she is an adult it could be a common enough name that it wouldn't be a big deal. Lately I have really loved the name Ava. My great grandma was named Eva, and I also went by that name in my Spanish classes in high school. My husband pronounces Eva like "eeva" (Eva Longoria). I think the modern spelling of Ava would clarify how to pronounce it. When my husband and I were first married we taught nursery together. We had a little girl in our class that was named Sadie. She was so cute, and had cheeks that you wanted to squeeze. We also picked our son's name because of a child in our nursery class, so it could be fun to have two from there! The drawback to Sadie is that I know of several dogs with that name.

My husband likes Sadie and Gracie the most. He doesn't really have strong feelings about any of the names, but he does like all three. He figures that whatever we pick he will get used to.

**5ft Diva** · #13 02-11-2008, 01:53 PM

So, it sounds like it's up to you!!! I can't wait to hear what you decide to name your baby.