A Baby By Any Other Name…
February 6th, 2009
The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers. ~Marshall McLuhan
At this time, when the baby comes up in conversation, I get asked three questions:
- How is Tori doing?
- Are you going to find out if it’s a boy or a girl?
- have you though about names?
I answer the first politely, trying to ensure the person asking that she feels as good as she can when there is an alien life form growing in her abdomen. The second I answer truthfully – no, we’re not planning on knowing the sex until delivery. The third I try and dance around.
The fact is, we’re pretty sure that we have names for both a boy and a girl. The boy name was effortless, and we both agreed quickly. The girl name gave us a little more pause, but we feel pretty settled now. But we’re not sharing. It’s wierd, but other people have strong opinions about what/how you name your child. And we both have strong enough opinions of our own without involving other people. I, for one, am convinced that a name can make or break you in school and work. The naming process went like this for us:
Tori: How about x?
Me: Like (insert reference to obscure song/band/actress/movie/whatever)? Well, if you want her to be (insert appropriate adjective ie. slutty, wierd, etc.)
This went on for a few weeks, and we had narrowed the female names down to a manageable short list. Last night we decided that we had decided. While we reserve the right to flip flop on it, in my head I know what I will be addressing our newborn as. I simply can’t wait.
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5 Comments Add your own
1. mandy | February 6th, 2009 at 11:05 am
good luck with the secret. it’s much harder than you think. we tried that technique for a while. now we are just lying and telling people we’ve chosen these completely absurd names. that way we can still privately debate our list until the day of the delivery when we make the big announcement.
2. Tarzan | February 6th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Baby names are tough. I think we all go through the same thing. Jane will come up with a name and it’ll remind me of someone I didn’t like growing up 9.9 times out of 10 – or I can think of a bad name or word that rhymes with it.
We *think* we have a name for a girl, although we’ve flip-flopped a few times. And actually the new girl name we came up with just came to us a couple of days ago.
As far as a boy name – unlike you guys, that is the TOUGHEST for us. We *think* we have one chosen, but we’re not sold on it yet.
If anyone asks us, we simply say that we haven’t decided yet. And if we do know for 100% sure down the road, then we’ll still tell people we haven’t decided to avoid any conversations or hearing people’s unwelcome opinions.
3. jeditang | February 6th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
So you’re not really naming your child Phinnius Q Butterballs?
4. Mike | February 6th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
We found out right away due to the circumstances of our pregnancy. With the twins, we felt we HAD to be ready when we met them for the first time. This is one of the growing list of reasons we have to try for another. A twin pregnancy is not like a singleton. My dear wife wants so badly to be pregnant again, and to do all the things that she couldn’t do with the twins.
As for their names. She was referring to them in utero as “Lilo and Stitch”. I started referring to them as Conner and Murphy from the Boondock Saints as only half jokingly. I am glad the names stuck.
5. jeditang | February 7th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I never put the Conner/Murphy thing together…how did I miss that?
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