What Do You Think? Baby Names
March 15, 2013 58 Comments
As previously mentioned in the post I did on ultrasounds, we found out the genders of our children before their births. With that knowledge, we were able to choose their names months in advance (not that we couldn’t have just chosen both a boy & a girl name…), but it helped us to become even more connected with them and it made them all the more “real”.
◊ With our daughter, it was pretty easy to choose her name. My husband was quite sure he wanted to name her after me, and I loved his late mother’s first name, Marguerite, so we named her Valerie Marguerite. We call her Maggie. I love her name. 
◊ Our first son was a little more challenging. We fairly quickly decided upon his first name, Joshua, but his middle name we played around with a bit more. I liked Daniel but my husband knew a kid he didn’t care for named that, growing up, so ya know – that was out! ha But then we tried out his father & brother’s name, Theodore, and it was perfect! Joshua Theodore. He totally fits his name. Or, it fits him.
◊ Our second son’s name was very hard for us to choose! I’m not sure why, but we couldn’t seem to come up with one! We tried out all sorts of names. I really like certain ones, but they’re not my children’s names for some reason. A perfect example is Owen. I love this name! But, alas, it is not meant to be. I tried and tried to make it work, but nope! And then it happened. One day I was reading the Bible and the name Samuel (and the story of how earnestly he was desired by his mother!) stood out to me as the perfect name for him! I ran it by my husband and he loved it too. Then we had to choose a middle name. We chose my late father’s middle name, Frederick. So, his name is Samuel Frederick. Perfect.
We already have a name in mind if we have another daughter one day. Heaven knows what we’ll do if we have another son! We have no boy names left!
Well, except Owen. 
What do you think?
How did you choose your child(ren)’s name(s)?
Do you use family names, or just ones you love that “feel” right?
~~~~~~~
You Might Also Like:
What Do You Think? Breastfeeding
What Do You Think? Cloth Diapers
~Image found at www.bing/images.com~
About Valerie
We had a girl name picked out before we found out our first’s gender, which was good because she turned out to be a girl! Her name isn’t actually a “name”…it’s a word from Scripture, but not a name, so it’s a bit unusual. We gave her my middle name which is also my aunt’s middle name and the middle name of several cousins.
We hadn’t been able to settle on a boys name with our first (we’d have probably gone with Micah Hosea if we’d had a boy, but Hubby’s not quite convinced Micah is a proper boys name. LOL!), but we hit on a name we both liked when our second turned out to be a boy. It helps that it’s a name from Scripture AND the name of Hubby’s favorite pound-for-pound boxer. We gave him Hubby’s first name as his middle name.
We aren’t planning to have any more kids, but if somehow we have another girl, I’m going to name her Hosanna Rose.
Biblical and/or names inspired by Scripture are always so beautiful, aren’t they? <3
I’m SUCH a girl, and take it to a WHOLE new level. You know how most girls–maybe starting around 20 years old–have a mental “list” of a few names they’d LOVE to name their future children? Well, when I was 20–I was frustrated because I would hear a name, decide it was PERFECT, and then not be able to remember it a week later. So I started a list on a Microsoft Word document. Every time I heard a name I loved, I added it to the document.
After a while the list got really long and I decided to organize it. By the time my husband and I got married last year, I had an alphabetized list, sorted by gender, a section with my favorite first/middle combinations, and a page with the meanings and Scripture references of each name. It’s about 50 or so names. My sister always told me I’d have to throw my list out whenever I got married…but luckily my husband thinks the list is awesome! He had me remove a few names he hated, and we added a few names he loved. And then around Christmas this year we started talking more about names (and no–I’m not even pregnant yet!). We’ve already settled on our first 2 boy names, and our first girl name
Our 1st boy will be my husband’s favorite name, Nathanael Ryan. I want to call him Nate!
Our 2nd boy will be my favorite name, Joshua Dean. Dean is my dad’s middle name. And Joshua is the name of the son my parents never got to have. They never found out boy/girl, and made a deal that Dad would name the girls, and Mom would name the boys. But they never had a boy, and my mom never got to use the name she put so much thought and love into. So ever since I was 15 or so, I’ve KNOWN I’d name my son Joshua!
And our 1st girl will be Eva Lynne. My hubby’s grandma just passed away at Christmas, and her name was Evelyn. And my Mom & sister’s middle name is Lynne. So it’s PERFECT!
We’re sooo ahead of the game.
LOL, Well I think it’s great that your husband is so supportive of your list and you guys were able to add & remove according to his preferences too! It definitely sounds like you’re ahead of the game.
Are you planning on waiting a certain amount of time before ttc? (Totally ignore me if that question is too personal for you! 
)
Not at all. Ideally we had planned to have our first shortly after my husband graduates from Seminary (this coming December), but we decided that it would be a blessing even if God chose to send a child earlier
. So haven’t been preventing for a while now….but we’re also not ttc. Maybe this summer we’ll actually start trying. 
Oh, that’s great! I look forward to hearing the news when it’s time!
We are ttc currently. <3 Samuel needs a little bro/sis!! 
Ohhh that’s so exciting! I guess that means you’ll soon become “atlanta mom of four”?
We hope so!
We decided quickly on that we did not want to know whether we were having a boy or a girl until the delivery (people around us told us we were crazy!). We have also decided on doing this with our next children whenever they come along. We did, however, decide upon two boy names and two girl names and figured we would pick once we saw our baby’s face.
We were both pretty picky when it came to names. We wanted the name that was easy to pronounce in both French and English, did not want a hyphenated name (which is really popular in Quebec and is, to some extent, similar to choosing a middle name). Girl names were easy enough and we settled on Annabelle or Zoe. As for boy names, well, they were so hard to choose from! I worked as a camp monitor for five years and have been teaching for five years as well, so I’ve seen quite a few children and teens. Some names, just seem to call for trouble. So, if my boyfriend suggested a name and the memory of a bratty kid came up, it got trashed! We finally settled on Alexander and Charles and when he came out, the first name that came out of my mouth was Charles.
That’s a great idea to have multiple names and then decide which one to use based on the name you feel fits the child! I love the name, Charles, by the way. So distinguished.
Thanks!
We named our oldest, Michael Brandt, after my husband’s father who passed away and his middle name is my mom’s maiden name (everyone on her side had girls so there was no one to carry on the name). I had my daughter’s name picked out in 9th grade when I saw a Babysitter’s Club tv show and heard the name – true story – and my husband actually agreed as long as her middle name was after his grandma – SCORE, so she is Zoe Charlotte. We had a horrible time with the 2nd boy and couldn’t agree on anything until about a month before he was born. Neither one of us loved the name at the time but we didn’t hate it so we went with it and now I love it – Troy David. (middle name after my grandfather who passed away when I was pregnant with #2 – my husband is jewish so we like to use the family names).
Oh, I love that you used your mom’s maiden name! Haha about the Babysitter’s Club!!
That’s neat that your husband wanted to use his grandmother’s name (awwww! he must have really loved her!)
For me us picking out boys names was so much harder than girls names. I think the mom should have last say on the name since we have to carry it around in our bellies for 9 months.
What is it about boy names?! So much harder to find great ones you love!
Somehow my husband and I picked out our son’s name when we first started dating. I almost feel like we willed him into being. He is a gift from God and his name fit him from the start – Hugo! And I found out at my 13 week ultrasound
Aww, I love that you feel you willed him here! Wow, you guys are really meant for each other, deciding so early on in your relationship! They knew he was a boy at 13 weeks? The tech at Samuel’s 11 week u/s was pretty darn sure, and she was right! B-O-Y
You’ve chosen lovely names for your children! Choosing my second son’s name was like pulling teeth…it took us AGES to decide!
Thank you! There’s something more difficult about choosing boys names, it seems. lol
I have “rules” for our name choices.
The boy names are Biblical – the girl names have to be three syllable with a beautiful meaning, but not necessarily Biblical.
We have Rowena (lovely and fair), Daniel (God is my Judge), Vivian (full of life), Abigail (a father’s joy), Harmony (unity and peace), and David (beloved).
Middle names are usually family members or dear friends. We chose Marie (a friend), Wayne (my dad’s middle name), Kay (my mother’s name), Scotlyn (a combination of my husband’s name and my grandmother’s middle name), Grace (this is the odd one out, not related to family or friends), and William (my husband’s mother’s father) – respectively.
I didn’t think about it until after we settled on David William but our boys have DW as their initials. If we have another boy, I feel bound to follow the DW pattern but I can’t settle on another “D” Biblical boy name that I like… maybe Darius… not sure about that.
Wow, you’ve got it down to a science!
That’s great and those are all lovely names. I love the meanings of Vivian and Abigail!! How neat!
I don’t have kids, but I name things I own. I realize it’s not the same thing, but I think names just come to you or they’re culturally based
Or you can go with names you like. I like Maximus or Max (from Gladiator), but I don’t think I’d name my kid that. Female names I like: Alexandra and Alexis (I chose those names for my mountain bikes)
So you like the ‘x’ sound in names, then.
Interesting! Are there any names in your family that have x in them?
I guess I do. I never made that connection
No names with X in my family. I don’t think I’ve come across an Indian person with an X. I think hardcore Indians would have problems pronouncing that letter
Haha, point taken!
I really like the idea of using at least part of a name to honor family members. My son is Nolan. He was named after my middle name, Nola. I was named after both of my grandmothers’ middle names. My grandmother whose middle name was Nola was named that after her aunt. So, old family name! My son’s middle name was Howard, after my FIL.
My daughter’s first name is Mia, just because I liked it. Her middle name, Lucille, is after my grandmother.
I love that you named your daughter after you. Does she ever, or will she ever use Valerie? Maybe you should just call her Junior.
I love using family names too! Wow, how neat that Nola has been used so many times, and now even with your son! I love that!
Thank you! I was uncomfortable at first, to be honest, with her name being Valerie, but over the years I have grown to love it. I don’t think she’ll ever go by it (she is definitely a MAGGIE), but you never know! She likes her full name, so that’s good, right?!
Except the first daughter, when I had free access to an ultrasound machine at the hostpital during residency, we opted to keep the gender a surprise. We only have three. For each, we had a girl and boy name selected. Although, I never liked the boy name for certain. Guess it’s good they were all girls like we thought. The first was named after both Grandmothers. The second was named after a wonderful, idealistic, compassionate staff doctor my husband and I had during med school. The third had to follow the pattern of the first two (start with M, have two syllables, and end in the long E sound–Mary, Maggie, and Marcie).
Seriously, what is it with boys names?! They are so much harder to find/choose. I like that you have a pattern. I grew up with three sisters, all of our names end with “ie” and our middle names are one syllable. My parents had a terrible time keeping us straight! lol
Well everyone seems pretty long winded on these reply’s so I won’t feel weird if I am as well, I named my daughter after this little girl in my camp cabin when I was 18. Her name was Lailani and she was half hawiian and half black, she was the most exotic looking little girl I had ever met, I thought her name was as beautiful as she was. Anyway, It was her first time being away from her mom for 5 days, so she was my shadow. She was the sweetest little girl and I told her if I had a daughter I was going to name her Lailani after her because of how sweet she was.
My daughter says she’s naming her first girl child Gethsemene and her boy is going to be Arimathea both bible places. I told her, her children are going to be have a hard time in school but she said that’s fine, they will live, and be able to share the gospel because of their names. Great post Valerie!!!
I just love the name, Lailani! It sounds beautiful and exotic.
Wow, she is brave with those names! Of course, her husband will have a say in it too.
Oh he does??? LOL. Yes I guess your right. I’ll remind her of that. Sometimes, you can forget when you are one short in your own life I think.
Shazza
Well, if he’s in the picture, I’m sure he’d like to have a say in his child’s name!
Yes she doesn’t even have a boyfriend yet but I’m sure she understands that, I was just kidding with you.
I know.
We just knew what to name our little guy. Atticus was the first name I suggested, and we both loved it! If we have a second boy though, that’s gonna be harder…
I seriously love that name! <3 To Kill A Mockingbird was my favorite book for many years!
Haha, you may want to start thinking about it – boy names (the second one, anyway) tend to be a problem to choose!!
It took us ages to decide on the names for our girls. One night, while pregnant with our older daughter, we decided to just go for a drive (popular pastime in our small, nothing-to-do-here town) and drove by Kylie Drive. It just sounded right…but I changed the spelling to Kylee We gave her the middle name Brooke because it is similar to my late father’s name.
With the youngest we just could not agree on a first name at all…this went on until I was almost 7 months along. Finally one morning my mom sent me a message that said “how about Jocelyn?” And I was in love. As soon as I asked him about it, he smiled and said “that’s the one.”
How cool that your mom found a name that you both loved! Your husband’s response is so cute.
Great post and love your kids’ names. For us it was kind of easy and not so easy… We chose a name that would be ok for both a boy or a girl, just with a change of spelling. Wyn for a boy, Wynne for a girl… and since we’re in Italy, people tend to call her Winnie (as in the Pooh! lol!). Wyn is the name of an anglo-saxon rune meaning joy… i knew I wanted to call my child this when I was in university! This we chose when I was about 10 weeks or so, the sex wasn’t quite so certain til 30 weeks (she was hiding at my second scan!) So later we came up with a different name for a boy… Maurizio, although I sort of preferred Maurice in English (it’s my favourite E.M. Forster novel!). For Wynne’s middle name I would have been happy to have it be Teresa, my husband’s late mother’s name. She passed away a few months before I got pregnant and I also discovered I was pregnant on her birthday. My husband didn’t want to though, so we decided on Lucrezia, a very important italian name!
We got a back up name for a girl, but might have to discuss the boy names next time! 
Thanks!
I really like both Wyn AND Wynne! Oh that would be so frustrating to not be able to tell baby’s gender because of their position! Glad she cooperated at 30 weeks.
I only found out the sex with my second child. My husband just didn’t want to know with the first, my son. He was named Ezra, partly because I think it’s a neat name and I wanted a biblical name. His middle name is a family name on my side, Leighton. My husband insisted he had never chosen the name Ezra (it was on the list, dear!) and therefore wanted to pick our daughter’s name. We were between Brooke and Erin, but when she was born he suggested the name Brynn. Her middle name is his family name, Levi. Both children are definitely unique characters with somewhat unique names!
That’s great that you use such unique names.
Interesting. Our daughter’s name was difficult. Actually, her middle name was easy, it was her first name that went through many different incarnations. We decided to have a Japanese first name and an English middle name for all of our children. So, with our daughter, we finally named her Tomoe. The Chinese characters in her name mean “wisdom” and “kindness” (智恵) The second character comes from my wife’s mother’s name, Keiko (恵子). Her middle name was easy, as I’d already settled on it, Sharon. It’s my mom’s name.
I love that you are combining two cultures and also using family names! And the meanings of Tomoe are just beautiful.
Love to hear how others find their names! Our oldest is Levi and he was named when he was 3 days old (for no other reason than we want it to be given by God) and my husband had a dream while in the hospital and so that way his name.. Our 2nd son was Judah named 1 week before he was born.. while doing my devo one day i was studying the name levi and saw that Judah was “levi’s younger brother” i was sold.. that same day my husband came home and said i found his name.. IT WAS THE SAME NAME! our 3rd is a girl and was named 2 sec after birth.. Selah (which means pause and reflect) my husband had heard and it and fell in love i wasnt sold until we had confirmation from God.. it came right on time:)
Hi, and thanks for commenting.
Dreams from the Lord are so remarkable, aren’t they? I’ve been shown things over the years as well and it never ceases to amaze me! There is peace and understanding with them.
I have a friend who also named her boys Judah and Levi. I’ve always liked the word, Selah. I’ve never heard it as a name though. Love it!
Well I don’t have to worry about naming children yet. But I did rename the characters of the short book I’m working on. For me, I like names to be unique. The good thing about naming fictional characters is that you already have an idea of what that person is like… So you pick a name around that idea and see if it fits. Like… There’s a matured successful man – I decided to name him Magnus Alexander Mikaelson. Which to me, fits. Oh. And the little boy in my book is called DANIEL James! After I read this… I thought oh no… Maybe Daniel isn’t such a good name after all. Even for a fictional boy. Heh.
That’s very true.
I am writing a book (slowy but surely) and the characters are really easy for me to name because I “know” them, like you said. Excellent point!
We had picked out a girls name pretty early. It wasn’t until the day before little man was born that we figured out his whole name. From the start though, it was never a doubt that the middle name of a boy would be after my grandpa who passed away and the middle name of a girl would be after my grandma I lived with (both were my dad’s parents). I really hope to have a girl so I can use my grandma’s name. Unfortunately, I don’t think she has much time left with us. I am so very happy that she got to meet my son though.
I just love naming them after beloved family members too! I’m sorry about your grandmother. I just lost mine in Dec.
My sister was named after her.
It’s so nice that your grandmother’s name gets to live on through your sister.
Yes, and we may use it if we were to have a third daughter in the future (you never know!)
Interesting question. My husband had two rules: short and unusual. I liked the idea of a Bible name. We somehow came up with “Boaz” much to our family’s horror. (Yes, the guy who married Ruth.) They have grown to like it but thought it was a joke at first!
My daughter LOVES the name, Boaz, because she loves that story! And have you seen the movie they made called The Book of Ruth? Carmen (the singer) plays Boaz. =)
I always thought I’d have all sons (my husband’s family is almost entirely male), so we’ve had a couple of boys names picked out for some time. When we found out our baby was a girl, we had a really hard time agreeing on her name. It seemed we both loved different names and felt pretty “meh” about each others’ picks. We always knew we would use Mary as her middle name, though, because it’s a family name on my side. Finally, we landed on Charlotte probably about 2 months before she was due. We love it! As for a potential second daughter, we do have a first name chosen, but we’re kinda stumped on middle names. I’m trying not to obsess over it until I’m actually pregnant though!
Funny you’d think you would have all sons and then end up with a beautiful little thing like Charlotte! She is *definitely* a Charlotte, btw – you guys did a great job of naming her. And I love that you used a family name too. I think it really blesses the whole family to pass a name down. <3
Pingback: What Do You Think? Colic | Atlantamomofthree