Monday, April 8, 2013

Girl Names! And a wee bit annoyed with my MIL.

Ah, naming a baby. With Lydia it was easy. We picked it out on our honeymoon, we just both had a feeling we would have a girl first. And I've always liked the name Collin.

This one is harder. We liked Claire, but a ton of friends and cousins have recently used it. Liked Olive, but same story. We have two names we like. Both very nice, classic names. But we aren't sure.
 And my mother in law vehemently hates one of them.
To quote, she said "Oh God, please reconsider. PLEASE don't call her.......!"
And then gave me a random alternate name to use that was hideous.

Dear Mother in laws all around the world. Don't say this kind of thing to your pregnant daughter in law who has chosen to share the sweet baby name she and your son adore.

Don't worry. I can almost guarantee my MIL has never even taken a look at this blog.
She won't know I'm venting.



My personal rules on naming babies:


No made up names.

No locations. (London, Brooklyn, etc. Doesn't work with our last name.)

No made up spellings.



If you don't read the "Worst of Rexburg Names" post, you are in luck, because 2012 was just posted this week! It's my favorite blog post of the year!

So, what should I name the baby? What would sound good when I say "These are my children, Lydia, Collin and my baby girl.........."


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46 comments:

JoEllen said...

That's exactly why I never let anyone know the name of our baby until we've made it a final decision...I hate the unwarranted opinion and advice! It was a breeze naming our boys, but we had a really hard time naming our baby girl. Final decision: Reese Cynthia. Either name meets your requirement =)

Lauren said...

I love this post! And I love baby names! My top 4 are Charlotte, Caitlin, Audrey and Olivia. Others I like are Camille, Alice, Annelise and Madeline! Cant wait to hear what yall decide!

Ashlyn said...

I'm sorry your MIL is being difficult. What matters is that you and your husband love the name...no one else. I wouldn't let what she said bother you. When the baby arrives, the name won't matter anymore...she will love that baby no matter what. :) I love the name Claire as you mentioned in your post. If we have a daughter someday, that is what we would like to name her. Other names I like are Ava, Avery, Clara, Camilla, Ellie, Ella, Grace, and Kate. Can't wait to hear what you end up naming her!

ZogLady said...

I'm stuck on Delilah and Daphne. lol. Apparently my next girl would start with a 'D', huh!

But in all honesty, I have a looooong list of names.... My second daughter ended up with the name we had originally picked for our first daughter (we always go in with our top three picks).... When we looked at our first daughter after birth we knew exactly what her name was to be, and it wasn't the first on our list! lol And it still suits her to this day the name she has! We went in with our same rule (3 names) with our second daughter and she ended up fitting our very first baby name we picked a year and a half before for her sister! lol

So.... Nevermind your MIL. It's YOUR child who will have a name that YOU and your Husband will have loved even before she is born! And that (and it fitting her) is what REALLY matters! Everyone else can jump on board or keep quiet! ;)

Jennifer Bartley said...

Before I even read Lauren's comment I was thinking Emily or Kailey or Audrey.... maybe it's just the -ey ending that sound so good in saying "Lydia, Collin and _____". I can't imagine being in charge of naming a baby....I can't wait to do it, but I expect I'll overthink it and feel overwhelmed a few times in doing so!

Sorry about your MIL situation. I agree with the above comment that it's easiest to not tell the name you pick beforehand, even to family...because it always seems like someone has a "horrible story" about their neighbor's daughter's friend who is troublesome or has ill manners or something that you'd prefer to not hear about the name you love lol. But I'm sure whatever your family decides will fit right in smoothly!

sweetmelbelle31 said...

I love the name Nora/Norah

Lydia, Collin & Nora
sounds cute!!

jaquelyn {mama thoughts} said...

yay for baby girl! :)

I love the name Lydia & have for a looong time - will probably be our first daughter's name, too!

so sorry about your MIL - i hope that she's more supportive of the next name! i feel like you shouldn't do that to other people, even if you really don't love the name they chose - it's their baby, after all!

BrittneyPlummer said...

When I say Lydia, Collin, ... Lucy follows. And I do like the name Lucy, also Juliet, Olivia is one of my favorites.

OH MILs,;)

Jill said...

How about Amelia? I love my Amelia. :)

And we have a Sydney. But now that I think about it. That can be a location...though we didn't name her after the location. HA!

Good luck on finding the perfect name for your perfect girl.

Stacie and Jared said...

I simply adore Simone, Kate, Julie, and Hannah. I feel your MIL situation, the same thing happened to me so we kept our mouths shut til the baby arrived and named her what we wanted (which was Kylie). Can't wait to hear what you pick!

Cheryl said...

I like names that are old fashioned. I agree with your rules!
We have two girls: Abigail and Madeline.
With both of our girls we had people tell us we should change the spelling to make it more unique.
No thank you.
I think if you both adore a name that is what it should be!
It is really hard for my husband and I to agree on names. Abigail was easy because it was my favorite name and we had one picked out for a boy but... no boys.
Abigail actually named Madeline and we both agreed we liked it.
But if we ever have more I don't know how we will ever name her! I want Cecily (my second favorite girl name) and he likes Chloe.

LindsayBetes said...

Ha Ha! My MIL did the same thing and the funny thing is, that made me want to use the name even more. he he. :) I have a boy named Patrick Murdock (after my father and my husband's father and grandfather). Our girl name (hopefully we get to use it one day) is Caroline. I have always like Reagan too. Good Luck!

Cllr Nat said...

I am in South Wales in the UK and my daughter's are Niamh(pronounced NEEVE) and my younger one is Nerys(Pronounced NERRIS) the first is Irish the secound Welsh!!! Other nice Welsh names are Ffion(Pronounced FEE ON)- Cariad(Pronounced CARRY ADD - which means Beloved)>>>ooh I could go on and on! I love Celtic names My sone is Rhys (Pronounced REESE)...You will know in your heart which is the name for her when she makes her entrance!

Much Love

Natalie xx

Natalie Jane said...

Ooo, those are really cool. And I'm welsh!

The Thomas Family said...

yup! Sometimes our idealistic world meets realistic people :) Unfortunately we all don't agree...
My guess would be she doesn't like Olive...but I have to say ...as weird as it sounds I had a dream after reading your blog a week or so ago, and a name came to me in that dream. I was just going to write it down and wait until you named the baby..but now I am wracking my brain to remember what it was (I obviously never remembered to write it down...sigh!) but it went with Natalie, and Lydia...so I even guessed you were having a girl before you knew. When it comes back to me I will email you!!!
Fun times of nesting though...and don't doubt making that other brother too - lol!

The Thomas Family said...

Funny how the mind works...but that was quick...lol!

I remembered:

It was Sophie!!!!!!

Natalie, Lydia and Sophie... {yup it was in my dream like writing on a chalkboard}

Ok...well, so "I" thought they sounded cute...including Collin in there too!

~Jennifer
P.S. I even looked up it's meaning before sending it..it's french variation means wisdom...that's cool.

Natalie Jane said...

Jen - let me know what you remember from your dream!

And there will be no brother sadly. This is it.

Natalie Jane said...

Jen - we must have been typing at the same time!

Sophie is so cute! But my sister Molly dibbed it for her daughter!

pandaandlion said...

Don't worry what MIL thinks. It is your baby, after all. You are the one who has to carry her for nine months, and heck! Even if you want to name her Henrietta McMyrtle no one should say anything negative to you. Lol. Joking about that cheesy name. My suggestion? I could see you having a beautiful little girl with an understated, classic and feminine name. Such as Mary, Elise, or Emma. xoxo Best of luck as you pick out the name <3

Lisa B. said...

I love the name Lillie. Lydia and Lillie!

Heather said...

What about Violet? I always thought it was such a sweet name for a little girl. You never mind your MIL, it's not her baby. Once she sees that new baby she won't care what the name is anyway! Have fun picking the name!

Kristen said...

Marie?

Kiley said...

I had pretty much the same name rules as well.

Favorite website for naming baby is: http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager# - super fun to put in any name and see how it's trended over the past 100+ years!

Love the name Greta, and I love/have a Kora, which I love with my Lydia :)

Can't wait to hear what you name her - it's one of my most favorite parts of the arrival of little ones.

Congrats again!

Kiley said...

OH and my most favorite baby finds recently are Jessica Alba's company - https://www.honest.com ... the diapers are SO cute... maybe you could do a giveaway :), and sollybaby.com - a much better baby wrap than the Moby... lightweight and not bulky! New babies are SO fun!

The Thomas Family said...

..well Sophie and Samuel do go cute together. I didn't realize Sophie was ranked #26 - almost didn't make your cut ;)

Lydia, Collin & ....

Claire (still voting for it)
Gwen
Avery
Jacqueline
Emery

You both will do a fabulous job. I can't wait to see what baby girl is formally named! If I have another dream I will let you know...lol ;)

Kathleen W. said...

My parents weren't very enthusiastic of the names we liked for my eldest, so I kept quiet about the names we had for our second. It sucks when there's such a strong reaction against names that you love.

That being said, I adore the name Claire. I was going to use that in some way (first or middle name) if we had a girl. My top picks were Audrey, Ingrid (it goes well with Soren, being another scandinavian name), I also considered a family name for a middle, like Helen or Theresa or Anastasia or Josephine (nickname Josie), which are grandmothers' names. But clearly you won't be going that route with your MIL!

Randi S said...

I agree with the comment that Norah goes well...I also think Olivia would go great, but it seems to be becoming more and more popular. So hard to choose names!

We are naming our baby girl Finley Grace...I read the name Finley in a book long before we were considering baby #2 and fell in love. My son picked the middle name. My only other option was Lydia (after my great grandma), but hubby thought it was too old fashioned...I still love it, you have great taste:)

The Thomas Family said...

scratch Avery...didn't realize it was #17 ;)..what about Clara? Latin for clear; bright; famous ;)

Hanna said...

I only had two rules really - 1)It could not start with "Mc" and 2)It had to be a name they could be president with!

Jessica Kok said...

We named our first two before we were married, so #3 was a challenge. I don't know what we would have done if she had been another boy. Boy names are tough! What I like about my kid's names is that there is a reason for each one. My girls are Anneke Ruth and Eloise Alida.

Alida - my grandmother-in-law's middle name. She died when I was pregnant. Happy to have been able to honor her.

Eloise - A name from a movie we watched while we cried thinking that I was having a miscarriage. It reminds me to be thankful for God's grace in the middle of hard times.

Ruth - My grandmothers were Ruthmary and Bobbie Ruth. Two birds, one stone! ;)

Anneke - The first part of my husband's name (Andre) and the last sound of my name (Jessica). Since that spelling would be crazy, we went with the Dutch spelling because of my husband's heritage.

I like the meanings too. Anneke Ruth means gracious friend. Hopefully she will be. We're working on it! ;) Eloise Alida means warrior and winged one. My husband is convinced she'll take after him and join the Air Force.

GretaLouise and JackBoyer said...

I have a little Greta. It fit so perfectly when we saw her. It was on our list and we shared with our inlaws...they said Greta was a dog name...hmmmm.

I am so happy with her name. It is so cute for a sweet little girl and grows with a sort of artistic intrigue to me.

You will name your sweet baby doll the perfect name. There will be no other more perfect!

D said...

I love the name Anneke and wanted to use it for a girl but we never had one. I'm not sure how we would have spelt it. I wouldn't want her to have to correct everyone all the time and I wanted it pronounced with the Awn sound at the beginning instead of Ann. It is a name from our family history with a cool story to go with it. Kaya was my other favorite. And Brynrefail which is the name of a village in Wales I visited. I would have split it up into two names and changed the spelling of the second since that wouldn't go over well here. Brynn Rafael. A place name but not as recognizable in the states:). I have welsh ancestry too.

Good luck with the name game. It's a very subjective and controversial game. You've done well so far so I'm sure whatever you pick will be a win. :)


kh said...

Lydia, Collin, and Jillian (my daughters name) :)

Love Being A Nonny said...

Stella!!

Betsy said...

Ok, so I don't know if one of your previous comments contains this insight, but when I hear Lydia and Collin, I think of Pride and Prejudice which then makes me think of the other great names from the book/movie.

How about Lydia, Collin, and Darcy? How about Lydia, Collin, and Elizabeth (you could call her Betsy for short)? How about Lydia, Collin, and Jane? I'm generally a fan of shorter names, but I think a longer name would go good with Lydia and Collin like; Caroline or Catherine or Georgianna?

As for you MIL, just tell her to go get pregnant, carry it for 9 months, give birth, and then she can go ahead and choose that baby's name. ;)

Valeta said...

Naming is so hard! My kids are Eric David, Lily Valeta, Gamma Dylan and Iris Clementine.

My neighbor kept her baby's name a secret until she was born. I thought it was a wise thing to do - no judgements!

My suggestions: Melody, Delilah or Avie.

You'll find the perfect name for your family. :-)

DeannaHurley said...

I hear Lydia and Collin and instantly imagine something like the scene of "Pride and Prejudice" or some equally lovely English classic. That being said, I imagine the third name to be something unusually classic like Ruby, Evie, Eleanor... or total cutey name like Piper.

Oh and I agree with above about Lucy.

Unknown said...

Ugh! People do NOT think before they speak! I had a similar situation when talking about names for our 2nd. So when we finally decided we didn't tell anyone! We have all boys...Grayson, Asher, & Keller.
I love the name Hazel.
Some of my girlfriends named their girls: Finnley, Presley, Campbell, Lila, Summer, Kendall, Katarina, Makenna, Leighton, Cadence, Ellie, Ella, Taylor, Addison.
Good luck!! It's so hard to choose!

D said...

My niece's name is Naomi Claire. Lydia, Collin, and Naomi sounds good to me. :) Other nieces are Alice Naomi and Abigail Lee. Check out the social security list that comes out on mothers day each year. It also allows you to search by popularity in your state.

The Thomas Family said...

How about Mallory!

A little bit of Michelle, Natalie, Emily, Abby AND Molly all into one name ;)

masonsmama said...

Tiffany?

masonsmama said...

Tiffany? :)

masonsmama said...

Tiffany?

Natalie Jane said...

Wow Masonsmama. Pushing for Tiffany much? ;)

Heather said...

Hi Natalie!
I think this might be my first time commenting, but you drew me in with the baby names! They can be so tricky, and people say really thoughtless things forcing their opinion of a name on you. I think your MIL will change her tune when she meets her new granddaughter.

There are some great suggestions here already, but I wanted to add Remy. That -y ending fits so nicely with Lydia and Collin. Remy. Or Ruby. Or Hazel. Or Hattie. Or Hannah. I could do this all day! It's always easier for me to come up with suggestions for someone else's baby! For my own future daughter, I really like the name Natalie, actually. :)

Anonymous said...

I see why a lot of people choose not to say the baby name until after the birth.
I think I just may do this...! lol

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