Friday, May 25, 2012

My Nameless Baby

Perhaps, much to your surprise, when this baby is born, s/he will not be legally named Squishy. It's an in utero nickname and that's it. We called Braden "Ferris" in utero, and he has NEVER been called that since, under very strict rules by me!

You have 23 weeks left, Sarah! Chill!

[Source]
Is what you might be thinking. I know! But we had had many a discussion on baby names last time around, and our names were locked in at 17 weeks. Now, I'm 17 weeks and we've had about 3.5 discussions on baby names. I just feel so far behind with this baby and this pressure to pick a name already! We have girl names, though Jay keeps bringing up a certain girl name that I have vetoed again & again. We cannot for the life of us agree on a boy name. Not one.single.boy name. But neither of us are really sold on a particular boy name individually. We like a lot of the popular names from last year, but that's the thing. They are so popular. But if we do choose a name in the top 5 or 10, those names aren't necessarily popular where we live and I'll have to just be happy with that. I guess in my insecurities I don't want people to think "oh, another '#1 on the baby boy list name' again".

It was the same with Braden. Braden's always a name that I've loved, but working in a children's hospital, it was a name that we saw so so so often. The popularness kind of "ruined" it for me. But then I reasoned with myself that it is not a popular name where we live...so that kind of justified the decision. The other thing with Braden's name...I feel like it was "the" name and nothing else will ever live up to it. It's such a strong, great name paired with James. But also, according to the "most disliked baby names of 2011", anything with "Aiden" in it, is disliked - Braden, Aiden, Kaden, Jayden, Hayden, etc. Whatever - I love it!

I wish I could get really excited about this baby's name. I feel so guilty! But, on the bright side I do have 23 weeks left! But every time I get a little excited about a name, I suggest it to Jay...and "veto". I just feel lots of pressure, especially if we have another boy, to name him as great as I feel we did Braden...as well as to have a name that goes well with Braden. If my feelings and vibes are right...we have a great girl's name that we'll get to use and hopefully that will be the end of that!

And also, if you haven't guessed by now, we don't discuss baby names publicly! Boring, I know! Team Green and no baby names to get excited about for you! All a big surprise and secret!

Did you have a really hard time deciding on your baby's name(s)? How did you and your husband decide?
Sarah

34 comments:

  1. My husband and I could NOT agree on a girl name, I was actually hoping for a boy because we had "Christopher Joseph" all picked out and loved it. Then we found out baby was a girl. My hubs liked NOTHING! I cam up with 3 names I liked: Alyssa Rose, Emily Rose and Gianna Grace. He hated Emily =( , he like Alyssa Rose but didnt want the same intials as our daughter "Ava Rita" but it wasnt out of play, then one day when I was saying Gianna Grace to him, I called her Gigi joking around, Frankie my 3 year old heard and was all "i like Gigi!!" he has called Gigi ever since and it melts my heart, so he picked the name for us!! Gianna Grace (nickname, Gia or Gigi) I then found out Gianna means "gift from God" and Saint Gianna is the patron saint of mothers suferring from fertilty pronbems, and it was a huge sign to me, that this was destined to be her name!!! wow sorry that was so long, lol!!

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    1. No, don't be sorry, Jill! That's a wonderful wonderful baby name story! Jay is just so NOT excited about baby names...not that men get "excited" about these things, per se...but any time I offer a boy name, it gets vetoed...yet he doesn't really offer any suggestions!

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  2. I feel like we are in the same boat. We have only discussed names a few times. We have 2 or 3 girl names that we like (but don't necessarily feel like one of them is "the one") and J keeps bringing up one particular name that I will absolutely not be naming my child. And as for boy names...we have nothing. It will be a miracle if we can come up with a name and agree on it haha. Best of luck to you!

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    1. Yah, Jay does that with one girl name. I like it, I have known many of them in my life...just not enough to name our possibly one and only daughter! We have 2 solid girl names...but nothing for a boy. Hopefully my feelings are right and we're having a girl!

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  3. This cracks me up, in order to hide Liam's name before he was born we called him.....Flavor Flav! LOL! We have never since called him that and our family thought it was so weird while I was pregnant, I think some of them feared we might actually name him that!

    On the real name front I'm no help, I had a dream where I was told Liam would be Liam (cheesy yes but true) and my husband picked the middle name (his dad's middle name). I'm sad that Liam is so popular but like you I decided that it was "the" name and it fits him so well.

    Good Luck!

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    1. I love the name Liam, always have! I think it only matters what we think...not what the popular charts say, but I 100% know what you mean!

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  4. It's basically me on my own here though Chris complains about name choices I've picked. When I was pregnant with Tristan, there was no decision making for his first name. He was Tristan from the day they said he was a boy (and before then too since I was hoping for a boy). Chris chose his middle name (with approval by me haha) and became Tristan Wayne. So far with boy #2 it is looking like Ethan Matthew might be my final choice but we'll see haha.

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    1. The names go really really well together! That's another concern of mine, is "will it sound good with Braden?" Oh so difficult!

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  5. maybe you will just have to wait & see what squishy looks like, maybe it will just come to you when you lay your eyes on him/her :)

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    1. I know it works for many people, but I'm too Type A to wait that long. I think my baby will look how I name it! ;)

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  6. Wes and I had the hardest time with naming #2. We felt the same about naming our first perfectly and it's feels hard to live up to! We had two names (one for each of us) and all of a sudden one day I heard "the" name and those other two went away in a flash. Just wait...youll know when you see it!!!

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    1. Oh you'll have to let me know what "the" name is you decided!! I know...one day it will just click!

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  7. For our triplets we had the names Isabel and Sebastian chosen almost right away, both were names that we really loved and had talked about "if we ever had kids they would be named" discussions. I liked it because of a cartoon I remembers from when I was little belle & Sebastian The 3rd name was a little trickier, we obviously never planned on having 3 babies all at once. We needed a name that could be pronounced easily in Spanish and English. I think I spent more time than my wife did looking up names. But one name kept coming back around and it was Lucas. When we finally decided on that name we knew it was our choice from the beginning, but for some reason we were fighting it. And now each names fits them perfectly. So it's Lucas Francisco, Isabel Enedina, & Sebastian Camilo

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    1. Wow, triplets! Love all the names that you chose - at least I only have to pick 1! ;)

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  8. We didn't name Riley until he was a few hours old. We only started to get really serious about baby names once I hit 40weeks. You've got lots of time. :)

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    1. Oh that's so not me, Katie! I didn't think it would be you either though! Love his name, and thanks for the announcement card!

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  9. I think it's so brave to be Team Green! It does sound exciting, but I just can't stand the wait. :) Justin picked Colin's name and I loved it from the very beginning. It was so easy. Future baby names will be harder though, I think. We've discussed it some, and also have a girl's name that we love, but have no idea about boy's names!

    If you do have another boy, I think another two-syllable name would sound great with Braden as a sibling. Nothing too matchy-matchy, though. Maybe something like Jackson, Jordan, Matthew, David.. that type of feel. Have I guessed any of the vetoed ones yet? ;)

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    1. Oh thanks! Honestly, one of the biggest reasons we're on Team Green, other than that "can't beat the surprise of a lifetime" thing...is it saves me money from shopping! I'd go crazy buying personalized Etsy items and whatnot, this way I do it after baby comes and don't have as much time to do it!!

      I agree, I don't want anything too matchy matchy and a 2 syllable name will work great for our 1 syllable middle name that we've chosen (pending that it sounds good with the first name!). I guess The names Matthew, David, John, James don't appeal to me as much is because those names were so common when I grew up... I do love those all though!

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  10. we had a VERY tough time! we did find out the gender early so knew it was a boy; that saved a lot of fighting over girl names. but i do think boy names are tougher to pick. hubby hated all 14 boy names i liked but had no suggestions himself. we got 5 baby name books at the library and found "Blaine" which I had heard before but forgotten about over time. we both loved it!

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    1. I honestly have a feeling this baby, if it's a boy, 's name will come randomly from a baby book. A name we never would have thought of and both suddenly love. At least I'm hoping so! Otherwise I'm making a list and telling Jay he has to pick one!

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  11. We had our baby names picked out BEFORE we got married. We have our next baby's (if we have another) name picked out too. It is the boy name we didn't use and a new girl name. We are also set if we end up with twin boys. Twin girls we would have to pick another girl name but we've got three or four runners up that we really love so it would just be a matter of narrowing them down.

    Evelyn Grace and our boy name are both family names. The second girl name is just one we like and our second boy name (you know if we end up with twin boys) is also a family name.

    Over prepared much?

    Good luck my friend! :)

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    1. I like your preparedness! We definitely discussed baby names even before we were ready to have kids, but nothing that stuck. And, actually our girl's name that was going to be if Braden was a girl isn't even in the running, I change my mind too much!

      We keep family names in the middle name, but the first name is our choice. I'm feeling better about the name, just wish hubs would throw me a bone!

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  12. We knew we wanted to name our first child after my husbands father, who had passed away before I ever met him. So if Lennox had been a boy, he would of been John David, but when we found out baby was a girl, we went with his middle name Lennox. Usually a boy in the terrell family, but I loved it for a girl! Middle name however was not so easy. We didn't have another family name we wanted to use, so we just looked through names until we picked one we like the sound of - Madalynn is where we landed. Good luck picking out a name for "Squishy" - you have plenty of times still!

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    1. I love it for a girl! It's so unique and original to me, and just seems to suit her so much! I know we have lots of time...some days it just doesn't feel like it!

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  13. Honestly, I had not clue what to name Zane. From day one,I always loved Hayley but with boy names, nothing stuck out. So, I did what any mom does- randomly picked from the baby book at Babies R' Us when picking up diapers for my youngest-LOL. True story- I opened up the book and scanned tons of names. When I landed on Zane- I thought it was so original. My husband wasn't a fan and still to a degree isn't but he is a Zane! you will figure it out!!

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    1. Okay...so how do I get my husband to agree on a name that he doesn't even really like!? Haha, tell me your secret! Mind you, the names he's vetoed, it's not like I was head over heels for them, like we both were for Braden. I just want that feeling of being as excited for the name 'Braden James' as we are for this one. Hopefully it will just click.

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  14. We still to this day cannot agree on boys' names (you know, just in case/what if) and we agreed if we have another girl, how are we going to name her? Vera Lynn was just perfect, it was immediately agreed upon (before we even knew we were having a girl!) and that was that!

    But...I can't wait to find out what Squishy is and to have a good and proper name to refer to them as! I'm so excited for you! I was telling S last week that seeing your pictures has made me change my mind and think that maybe a second child wouldn't be so bad after all in a few years :)

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    1. Oh I so feel you on "the" name. Braden James was "the" name, especially for a boy and I feel like nothing will ever compare :( All the more reason to hope that this is a girl, because I am pretty excited about our girl names!!

      I had no idea you were thinking about maybe not having more kids! You're so young, you could totally wait until Vera is 3 or 4, like Laura did with Luke, and be ready and just have one more. Oh I sure hope you do!!! ;)

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  15. I honestly don't really care about the TOP Names list. Sophia apparently was in the top 5 last year but it's always been a name I loved PLUS there were no other Sophia's on either of our sides AND we agreed on it. When you come from a big family that's almost impossible to see......so it ended up being the perfect name :)
    I think go with your heart.....and it probably won't be as popular where Braden goes to school.
    We are having a really hard time with names this time around too. It's such a hard decision.....we want something that sounds nice and goes good with Sophia. Steve and I have such a hard time agreeing.....we like one girls name and possibly have one boys name but nothing set yet. Good thing we have a few more weeks to mull it over as well :)

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    1. I love her name and it's not a popular name here either...plus you're right - you have limited selection as it is!

      Thanks for your advice and for reading, friend...I can't wait for us to have these young babies together!

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  16. I never wanted TOP baby names either. And I have Hayden & Olivia! Logan isn't as high I don't think, but popular too. They were just names I loved FOREVER & Jeff was fine with all of them. So ours was easy peasy. We had 2 top boy names & actually 2 top girl names. But for a while we thought we were having 3 girls (which we were going to name Aubrey, Olivia & Isabelle) but when only baby B stayed a girl... she just stayed Olivia. I couldn't change her name, it didn't seem right.

    We talk about baby names all the time too. (because we want 1 more) Or, I talk about them & Jeff doesn't run away. We have a girl name we agree upon, but nothing for boy either. I like Paxton, Jeff does not. I also like Camden. I'm partial to the end in 'n names for some reason. Is there something you guys want the middle name to be if its a boy? Something sentimental or familial? That might make it easier to find a name that flows or fits with a desired middle name?

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    1. I love our names, always have. They go SO well together! I've always loved Aubrey but we have a MAJOR veto situation between me and Jay, it's hard to get him into the name thing at all this time around. Now that the 17 week mark has past, for some reason I'm not so anxious about it anymore. I guess cuz we had our names then last time but now that it's come and gone with this pregnancy it doesn't seem so scary!

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    2. Also, we do have middle names picked out. For a girl - Ann - which is my maternal side's middle names, including mine, and for a boy will most likely be John - so yes, that does help to pick out first names!

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  17. We are still not solid on a name. It's nice that you see what a lot of babies are being named. I kind of hate how popular our daughter's name Aubrey is. I really wanted to name the new little girl in my belly Piper but my husband's family is acting like I am trying to name her Godzilla or something equally heinous. Right now we are leaning towards Zoe but that seems to be getting really popular too. Have you had a lot of Zoe's born lately? I guess I don't mind a little popular, I just don't want her to have 3 other Zoe's in her class.

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