The Name Game

People keep asking me if we've come up with any names for the baby. The answer is yes and no. We started looking at names when I was at 12 weeks. The boy names came really easily. I suggested 2 names, and the hubby took to them immediately. No questions asked. My top name was his top name. Easy peasy! The girl names, on the other hand, have been tougher. Our initial brainstorming session did yield an initial short list of girl names; however, none of the names we came up with tickled my fancy the way the boy names did. I didn't worry too much, since I was pretty convinced that PK would be a boy. It turns out, however, that PK is a girl, according to two different medical professionals.

Since I wasn't totally satisfied with our initial list of girl names, it was back to square one. We tried baby name sites. We bought a book. Let me tell you - there are A LOT of weird names out there. I definitely think it's cool to have an original and/or unusual name, but within reason. Parents-to-be need to realize that kids can be evil little brats and they'll pick on other kids over ANYTHING, including a name. So Apple, beware of playground bullies. If you get beat up, blame mommy Gwenyth Paltrow. (What was she thinking?!)

I am also opposed to weird name spellings. If you want to be original, at least pick an exotic name. And by exotic, I mean a person's name that exists from another culture, not some made-up crap name that will get your kid beat up in the schoolyard (see previous paragraph).

I was born in Brazil, and I thought it would be cool to have a Portuguese name. Unfortunately, most Portuguese names, to me, sound dorky, especially when you anglicize them. Compounded with the fact that the hubby is of Scottish and British descent (as WASPy as it gets!), I can't even imagine what it would be like for him to try to pronounce (let alone spell) a Portuguese name. My own name anglicizes nicely, so the hubby has no trouble with spelling and pronounciation. :P

I'd also considered French names, but that puts us in the same pickle as the Portuguese names. I also thought that a Shakespearean name would be neat, but I haven't encountered a Shakespearean girl name that is the "it" name.

I really like the name Ariel, but the hubby says it reminds him of the character in "The Little Mermaid". Too bad. It's one of my favorites. I also like the name Aïda (as in title character in the Verdi opera), but the hubby thinks it's too weird. Too bad. I loooooooooove the umlaut! Pooh on him. :P I would also love a name with an accent. I think the name Padmé is cool because of the accent, but the kid would NEVER live down the "Star Wars" reference. That's up there with Nicholas Cage naming his kid Kal-El. Oy...

We did finally come up with a short list of girl names (around 3 or 5 names), though I think that it has been narrowed to two candidates. They are easy to spell and easy to pronounce. They are Anglo-ish names, which is probably good, given the hubby's super-WASPy last name. :P The problem? We both like both names; however, he really likes one name, and I really like the other.

Now in case you're wondering, I'm not sharing names until showtime. I got the idea from my sister-in-law. She and her husband did that when they were expecting their first child, and I think it worked out well. EVERYONE has an opinion about names, and some people can be quite adamant about it. We definitely don't need that right now. Unfortunately, when we told family that we weren't sharing our baby names, I got some serious lip service from my side of the family. My mom and my sister both said something along the lines of, "But why wouldn't you tell ME?", and my grandmother is completely disturbed by the fact that we don't have a name for the baby, and she doesn't know what to call it. I would've told her about the PK nickname, but try explaining that to a 75-year-old Brazilian lady. Not easy.

I did cave and tell my mom the boy name, but it was after we'd found out that we were having a girl, so no danger. Even so, I got so much criticism for that one name, that I'm really glad that I didn't reveal the girl name. Besides, I think that the hubby would not have been too pleased about that one. I think that part of the reason why we won't quite settle on a girl name is to stave off prying family members. If we don't pick a name, we don't have to tell them that we've picked one but aren't telling. I guess we've picked two but aren't telling, but oh well. :P In the meantime, I get name suggestions from my mom and my grandmother every so often. I smile and nod. I love my mom and my grandmother, but it's our decision, not theirs.

As for the middle name, THAT was easy. Call me weird, but I don't like middle names, which is pretty funny considering that the hubby goes by his middle name (big long story around that one). My aversion to middle names might be an upbringing/cultural thing. In Brazilian culture, the child's middle name is the same as the mother's maiden name. I guess it's more like a surname than a middle name, really. At any rate, I told the hubby that I would like PK's middle name to be my maiden name, and he agreed. (Did he really have a choice? :P) So I guess in the end we get the best of both worlds. I retain a bit of my culture, and PK ends up with a North American name that the hubby can both spell and pronounce.