Fun fact: the first post ever published at Appellation Mountain was way back on January 23, 2008. Which means that I’m into my eighth year of blogging baby names, which is … more than I ever imagined.
Lately I’ve been finding fresh inspiration in baby name discussion forums. It feels right, because baby name forums are where I got my start – and met some of you that I’ve known since way back in the beginning!
It makes me wonder if – or should that be how? – all of this information and discussion has changed our baby naming decisions. I know that my everyday life has changed dramatically thanks to this brave new world. Netflix, Zipcar, Shutterfly and Snapfish, Amazon Prime, Target Cartwheel, the apps that I use to organize my son’s ice hockey schedule, plus those that manage our household finances, and, of course, this blog. My 60-something mother is Uber’s newest user, and while we may have been the last household on earth to discover Sirius, it has added a ridiculous amount of happiness to our daily routines.
I don’t have any answers or even guesses. It’s just a random thought that crosses my mind now and again, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Enough with the extended reminiscences! On to the name chatter:
- The Gerber Baby 2016 photo contest is over, and the winners have been announced! Isla, London, Drew, Hazel – it’s an on-trend pack of adorable babies.
- I find this question interesting. If you had a #1 name for a child that you didn’t get to use for years, but then finally had the chance – did it still feel right? Kate has an answer for a family expecting a daughter at last, after five sons. We know a family whose top boy name still fit perfectly, even though they’d chosen it several children and many years sooner. But I think the opposite feeling is equally common.
- Traditional names with atypical nicknames? This is my favorite category!
- I did not ace this quiz.
- 13 People Who Definitely Think They Know What You Should Name Your Baby. So true. I half expected a .GIF of my face to pop up as number fourteen.
- This post from Duana is just fabulous. The take-away? Duana has always had amazing taste in names. Bianca? Swoon. (Which reminds me – if you’re Canadian, her new book, The Name Therapist, is available for preorder! Americans, we will have to wait patiently, and/or appeal to Canadian-dwelling friends and loved ones.)
- A great round-up of stories about how babies got their unusual names.
- So many great names inspired by water. Why isn’t Caspian in the US Top 1000?
- I wonder if New Zealand is moving away from banning specific baby names?
- Pop culture names I’m crushing on lately: Hildegard, from Sofia the First, and Alessia, as in the singer.
- This list of Biblical unisex names is fabulous.
That’s all for this week! As always, thank you for reading – and have a great week.
Happy blogging anniversary, Abby!
I scored 75% on the quiz, but that’s mostly because it gets easier to guess as more options are removed. I think I knew about a quarter of them off the top of my head.
Into your 9th year, I think! congratulations!
Wait, what? You’re right! I can’t count …
Last night my grandmother-in-law posted on facebook that I was 7 months pregnant with a daughter named Denise. Which isn’t even remotely close to reality. Like, at all. Does that count as someone knowing what I should name my nonexistent children?
Yikes! I can’t decide if that’s funny or horrible. Probably both, depending on your mood. And oh yeah, that DEFINITELY qualifies as someone *knowing* what’s exactly right for you.
I was pretty livid last night – it was a public post – but now it’s just funny. I mean, she thought I was secretly 7 months pregnant. I’m not sure where she thought I was hiding that fetus.
With most of our babies (we’re on number 8–due in March) there was a top one or two names. We used one of the top names and the not-used names never resurfaced for any other child. However, my husband wanted the last two girls to be Annabel and I said no and named them Harriet and Clover. Harriet was never going to be anything but Harriet, but with Clover I thought I would let my husband have his way. Then I had the strongest feeling that Clover was not to be named Annabel. I love the name Annabel so it wasn’t supposed to be an issue. But it was. I searched and searched frantically for the right name and eventually felt I’d found it. My hubby was mad and I felt rotten but stuck to my guns that Clover was supposed to be Clover and not Annabel.
Then we decided to not have any more kids after Clover, but prayed about it one more time to make sure our plans were aligning with His plans. They weren’t. We were told in no uncertain terms that we were supposed to have another. I was pregnant pretty much immediately after that. We assumed boy for awhile as our kids are girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl so a boy would come next. When I found out “he” was really a “she” I knew instantly that this was Annabel and she’d guarded her name for herself.
Some might find all that silly, and I understand. For us, some babies were named easily and it felt right the whole time and other babies asserted themselves about their names. One baby we called Brigham for months with no indication it was the wrong name but the minute we saw him we knew it wasn’t his name. My husband said, “His name is Eli,” and I said, “You’re right,” and that was it.
My long-winded point: if a name that you’ve loved forever suddenly doesn’t feel quite right, it is probably because your baby wants to be called something else. That might seem ridiculous, but after our baby naming experiences I believe it. When the name is right it just feels right.
Another sidenote–don’t feel too badly for my hubby that I named Harriet and Clover over his preferences. I know some people think that is a marital no-no. My hubby picked his two favorites off of my favorites list for the first two–so we were both happy with them. Then I gave up Clementine (sniff sniff) because he hated it more than I loved it. He picked Eli, our fourth baby. I picked Harriet because I’ve always wanted to name a baby after Harriet Tubman. The reason for picking it trumped his not liking it. With the sixth baby I gave him carte blanche as I felt a little guilty about sticking to my guns with Harriet. He said no to over 50 names without coming up with one option himself! I finally had a fit and gave him two name options he could pick from if he didn’t come up with something himself. He picked one of the options I gave him. No one can blame me for getting my favorite name on that one!! Number seven I picked (with help from this blog!), and number eight is going to be his favorite girl name. He’s had his way most of the time and I was right about Clover and Annabel. Some people are able to compromise and some of us just let the person who cares most win as no compromise is available.
I’ve only had one kid, but I definitely relate to the experience of feeling like she chose it. We didn’t know if we were having a girl or a boy, but after stumbling across what would in the end become her name, it was the only way I thought of the baby – using that specific name.
Despite that we went into the delivery room with a boy name and two girl names, but she ended up with the one I’m convinced she chose for herself!
So glad you’re finally going to use Annabel! And if I haven’t said it, congratulations on baby #8 – so exciting. 🙂
And I know other families who have went in with The Name, then met their child and had that Brigham/Eli moment. It doesn’t make any sense to me intellectually, but there are lots of moments like that in life, aren’t there?
Care to share some of your favorite baby name forums?
Currently addicted to this Facebook group most of all: https://www.facebook.com/groups/641314609270915/
It’s closed, but the admins are very on top of things, and I think my request to join was approved within a day. Lots of activity, too!
I clicked the link to amazon.ca for Duana’s new book, and you can (pre-)order the book from there even if you’re outside of Canada (the print book will obviously cost more than if you were a Canadian due to shipping; I don’t know whether or not the same applies to the Kindle format though).
What I said applies to those living in the U.S. – I don’t know if the same applies to those in other countries or not.