I have had an odd obsession with baby names for as long as I can remember. I once saved up my babysitting money to purchase a baby names book. Yes, seriously. I know, no need to mock. I've been teased enough already, I assure you. Remember the year at girls' camp when my friends and I wrote an extremely dramatic "novel" about all the boys we'd marry and what all of our childrens' names would be while we waited around in our cabin for "Ranger Shirtless" to come empty the garbage? Oh that's right, you probably don't. Well, it was, as my nieces always say, epic.
(Side note: I will always love, love, love girls' camp!)
So take a name-obsessed, wants-nothing-more-than-to-be-a-mother kind of girl, add way more years of waiting for children than anticipated, no control of the spacing between them, and you end up with hundreds of church sacrament meeting programs donning name lists on the back (or wherever there is space in those wards with lots of announcements on the back!). The way I see it, for a person who doesn't have a lot of control in how or when my children come, or what it feels like to have my baby kick or get the hiccups before they are born, getting excited about names keeps me occupied as I anticipate my babies.
I was more secretive of my name lists at first, probably because they included certain last names of the boys I had crushes on. I think most girls, at some point in life, practice signing their name with that certain boy's last name attached. I made up names for our children. Weird, right? I know.
Anyhow, now I am not quite as reserved when it comes to sharing my lists. I love to talk names with anyone who's game. The best feeling in the world sometimes is stumbling upon someone who shares my naming style. One of my BFFs lets me chat names a lot right now and we love the same kind of names. I adore her even more for it. Kindred Spirits for sure! Well, imagine my delight when I came across an entire website dedicated to baby names that was created by the authors of a baby name book I actually read cover to cover because I identified with the naming style so much. It's not your average baby naming site, but one tailored specifically toward people like me...name lovers! The message boards, the hot lists, the blog, the search feature -- all of it makes my heart beat a little faster. And the best part of all just might be the discovery that I am not alone in my obsession!
Maybe you are a name freak too. Have you been keeping it from me? Spill it.
If you aren't into baby names as much as I am, maybe you sometimes wished you had a different name growing up. What was your dream name?
(Side note: I will always love, love, love girls' camp!)
So take a name-obsessed, wants-nothing-more-than-to-be-a-mother kind of girl, add way more years of waiting for children than anticipated, no control of the spacing between them, and you end up with hundreds of church sacrament meeting programs donning name lists on the back (or wherever there is space in those wards with lots of announcements on the back!). The way I see it, for a person who doesn't have a lot of control in how or when my children come, or what it feels like to have my baby kick or get the hiccups before they are born, getting excited about names keeps me occupied as I anticipate my babies.
I was more secretive of my name lists at first, probably because they included certain last names of the boys I had crushes on. I think most girls, at some point in life, practice signing their name with that certain boy's last name attached. I made up names for our children. Weird, right? I know.
Anyhow, now I am not quite as reserved when it comes to sharing my lists. I love to talk names with anyone who's game. The best feeling in the world sometimes is stumbling upon someone who shares my naming style. One of my BFFs lets me chat names a lot right now and we love the same kind of names. I adore her even more for it. Kindred Spirits for sure! Well, imagine my delight when I came across an entire website dedicated to baby names that was created by the authors of a baby name book I actually read cover to cover because I identified with the naming style so much. It's not your average baby naming site, but one tailored specifically toward people like me...name lovers! The message boards, the hot lists, the blog, the search feature -- all of it makes my heart beat a little faster. And the best part of all just might be the discovery that I am not alone in my obsession!
Maybe you are a name freak too. Have you been keeping it from me? Spill it.
If you aren't into baby names as much as I am, maybe you sometimes wished you had a different name growing up. What was your dream name?
13 comments:
I love names too! And, I've wanted to ask you about what names you're thinking of, but didn't want to be too..ummm...nosey? or obnoxious? or whatever. People seem crazy about keeping their names a secret, but I laughed out loud about your whole post because I couldn't agree more! :)
Oh yes I love names too! I agree it truly is one of the few things we have control over in adoption. My poor boys have 4 names! I figure I might not have very many children so might as well. I LOVE IT!! If they grow up and want to use another one of their names so be it LOL!!
I love names and still like talking names even though I think we are done naming kids.
I didn't have a specific name I wished was mine as a kid I just wanted any name that was exotic enough that 5 other girls in my class at school wouldn't have the same one.
I never wanted to be that family will all the same first letter names, but as I look at the names I like they are all Ms???? Which is no fair becuase I would love to at least name one of my kids a W name, but the rest would be M's and I don't want to leave that little one out. But I hear you on names... I actually have a mock post all about names too -
I've always collected baby name books. I made lists when I was younger, too, and now I cringe when I see some of the awful names I wanted to subject my future children to.
I always liked the name Ruby so I gave it to my little girl. Then I placed her, of course, so now I'm trying to decide if it would be creepy in a "I only had you to replace the child I placed" kind of way if I named the next girl I have Ruby. And I'm not sure how the first Ruby would feel about it, either.
Of course, at this point I've given up on ever marrying and having children so I suppose it's a moot point.
Also, I less than three NameBerry.
I love names too! I have lists. Boy names seem to be really hard for me though, because I only have 4 of those (and Que doesn't even agree with me on most of them.)
Being a Utahn has kind of made me a Name Nazi (I really don't like the baby-naming trends most Utahns tend to latch onto...) so my names on my list are more traditional, but not necessarily common.
Oh I love names! Am I a "name freak?" It might be so. When I see pregnant women and we start up a conversation and it turns out they don't know what to name their baby, I start dishing out names I think are cute. So is it so?? Yes. I am a name freak.
I have made lists for years and years. Originally I was more non traditional but these days I am loving more traditional less common names. Tim is all about biblical names and such. I tell him some of the names people are using and he gets really disturbed. haha Yes, I love the baby name thing. :)
I love that you named the kids you would have with your crushes. So funny. Also I've spent two minutes on Nameberry and I think it's my new favorite website.
Two of the perpetual Gmail drafts I have are for names I like and ridiculous names I hear about. I'm also very particular about spelling, as in, I probably wouldn't name a kid Aeschleah (translation: Ashley). That's a real name.
I had lists of names too! :) Ever since I was a freshman in high school. Of course they always changed according to who I was dating. My husband and I had a name picked out for all our kids (if we were to have 3 boys and 3 girls) yet of course, we didn't even use the name for little Grace. Our birth mother actually picked the first name and we picked the middle name. Yet I wouldn't have it any other way! I never would have picked the name Grace as a name but she is such a Grace that it would seem weird not to have her be a Grace. :)
I love names too. My cousin is actuallly pregnant with twin girls right now and so we are trying to come up with two names for her.. so fun.
Nameberry is the coolest, right??
Shelby: I messaged you a thread I have going at nameberry.com right now about some of our faves...did you get it? What did you think?
Christine: I have SO wanted to use more than just three names! One of my favorite blog posts at nameberry.com was about British names and there was a link to a London newspaper's birth announcements. As I was warned it might in the blog post, it totally sucked me in, like for hours! Anyway, the point is, a lot of those babies had four names (gorgeous names!)...and it got me thinking!
Jen: funny you should mention being a Jennifer...when you commented, I had to click on your name to make sure it was you because I have several Jen friends, of course, and have to see which one is commenting! I love all the Jens in my life! :)
Marry: well, my friend, it looks like you are stuck with M names now!! Funny, I have always loves a lot of M names too. Is it because we ourselves have M names and it's really all about us anyway?? ;)
Jill: You know I feel a kinship with you on the Ruby thing! Do you like the name Lucy? I think it's fabulous, but I think it's too much for us to name Ruby's sister Lucy. As someone mentioned to me, I'd probably get stuck calling them Luby or Rucy (what's up, Scooby Doo?!)!
Brittany: First of all, if you need more boy names, I'd be happy to barage you with some of my faves...I LOVE Liam's name. I love that two of you who have posted here live in UT and have baby boys named Liam, just like Jill and I both chose Ruby a month apart here in AZ! ;)
Funny, I feel like I try hard to avoid the Utah trendiness with my names. When we named Carter, I had only ever met one Carter in my life, and he's like in his 40's now. Funny, the next year there were a million Carters, along with every other C name! Also, Ruby got me some major weird looks at first. Now, it's apparently very popular...more in UT I think. Still, we only know one other Ruby here, funny that we happen to be very good friends with her parents and her birth mom happens to be our friend, too! Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm pretty much a name-trend-setter. Remember, it's still all about me here.
Melanie: You made me giggle! You should get on nameberry.com with your hubby and look at some of the crazy posts people make about the worst names and weird spellings. Check out some of the funny hot lists like "bad girl names."
Veronica: the above is for you, too. Very amusing to browse through and find some gems this way. In all seriousness though, some of my favorite names come from the vintage and old lady names list. On the message board there is a thread called "what was the name of the last old lady you met?" and I love to peruse the posts there. Nameberry really is amazing. Have you noticed they call each other "berries" on the message boards there? {Swoon}
Angee: isn't it cool how whatever name you choose becomes your baby? I love it. We feel like Ruby's name kind of picked her and we had no choice but to use it, and it is SO her.
Heather: FUN! If you need help, nameberry has great twin suggestions that sound great together but aren't cheesy together. I recently saw Riley and Kiley together for twin girls. Sorry if you like those names, ladies, but I was freaked out by that!
Hooray! I love comments! I love that I have name-loving friends! :)
Oh yes, I really despise the Utah baby name trends (and I am a native). I am not a fan of the misspelled and/or made-up names. I had someone tell me that they wanted to name their baby boy "Liam" but she wanted to spell it "Lyam". I said "But that spells "LYE-am." and she just looked at me like *I* was the crazy one.
Oh my heck, also obsessed with names!!! When my sister-in-law was pregnant and they couldn't come up with a name, I thought, how is that even possible! My husband actually picked out our daughters name, Emma. It's simple, but she is totally an Emma. We had a hard time with her middle name. when we started trying 6 years ago I agree to my MIL's name, Sherry. But once we got Emma I didn't like it. I wanted my grandma's middle name, Sophia (it's pronounced So Fi a, it's Danish.) but hubby didn't like it. We then settled on part of my first name(Dawn-Marie), Marie, but a few weeks later we switched to our birth mom's name, Samantha! I've never been a huge Samantha fan, but we are now in love with the name, Emma Samantha!!!
I have a 2 part first name and I wanted to keep it going, but Hubby hates it.
oh and on the Utah name thing, hate it too! I'm in Utah and my friend named her son Kaelor. it took a long time to like it and my daughter's name was Jaelah!!! Yeah, not even the caseworker knew how to say it when they dropped her off, FYI it's Jay-La, I was okay with it if we changed the spelling, but my husband hated it!
I kind of feel bad giving Emma such a popular name right now, but it just fits too perfectly.
As of right now we just have 1 boys name picked out(Payson). Maybe I should go look up more names!! :)
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