Names in a Hat

I have a few close friends who are about to be mama's thinking of names. Naturally, it has me thinking of names and offering these ladies my little nuggets of name goodness. It's so much fun. Like this week, I was telling prego-friend of a birth announcement I read of twins, a boy and a girl, and the announcement named their big sister. The three names are all names prego-friend and her H like and have tossed around, and they aren't super common names. Small world!

In high school, madly and blindly in love with The One (errr, The One Who Cheated and Broke My Heart) I decided my baby names would be Madison and Noah. Very vanilla, yes. I have journals I kept from those days, with blonde-haired kids' pictures cut out of Estee Lauder ads proclaiming, "my daughter Madison," and "my son Noah." I still am really fond of the name Noah.

A boy name the Dad liked pre-mama? Memphis, for a boy. Think Gone in 60 Seconds, with Angelina and Nic Cage. My mom about dropped dead when he casually mentioned that to her and clutched my arm, "tell me you won't name your child That?"

The Dad and I settled on our baby names, one for each gender, about an hour after we started dating. Well, maybe that was more me. Whatever, they were done deals before we got married. Interestingly enough, the name we chose for the lil' dude was a girl name I had liked since high school. A woman my mom worked with had a granddaughter by the name . . . I had never heard it before and thought it was so pretty and unique. It's an old-lady name, I guess. And this is where the interesting part comes in, I would soon enough learn the Dad's mom's maiden name was the same, just spelled differently. It was like that name was meant to be. We went with the MIL's spelling, plus a vowel. To say she was shocked and honored which catapulted me into eternal daughter-in-law awesomeness is an understatement. After the lil' dude was born and named, the rest of the Dad's extended family was all like, "Why didn't we think of that?"

The boy name we still have locked in the vault. It is a family name from my side, and it's still a secret. I hope to see my dad's face if we get to use it, since it's a name honoring him. I want to use that name badly, and it has me thinking, can a name be universal? Is this name destined to be used by next and probable last baby regardless of sex? I don't know, but some people do. I personally like the names Dru, Ryan, and Alix for girls.

The two mama-and-the-Dad chosen names aside, I feel like I can share the list of names I would use as my baby names. I don't own the names, will not use them (unless something goes terribly wrong and I give birth to a litter) and always think it's interesting to see what names people like, and why.

#2 boy name: Beckett
#2 girl name: Finley

I can see these names on a Christmas card together, I love them both so much. I don't know where Beckett popped into my head from, but I know a few years ago I was watching an NBA game with the Dad and a player from the Spurs named Michael Finley had an amazing game . . . and the announcers kept saying Finley over and over again. I loved it right then.

As I continue down my short list of girl names, I can see a trend here. I like names that end in-y or the -ee sound.
Ruby.
Linley.
Hadley. (just heard this one!)
Maybe I could envision myself yelling for the kids at dinnertime from the porch. The -y names carry well and can be stretched out. Try it once. Finleyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy . . .
Harper.
Willow.
And, Wren. I think that is such a beautiful name for a sweet little girl.

Boy names. Always come easier to me. Why?
When I was about 20 weeks pregnant, I dreamt of having twin boys, Ned and Gus. I don't know where those names came from, but I loved both of those instantly too. If I had to pick one, I'd choose Ned.
Leo.
Shaw.
Ellis.
Jameson.
Jace.
Emerson.
Asa. (pronounced, Aye-SAW) I met a guy at a work function by this name and he was h-o-t hot. But still, instant cool name.
Penn.
Henrik.
Tate.
Haven. I knew an old guy who lived by my grandparents' farm with this name.
Cash.

You're thinking, Cash? but not Memphis? It's just different, you see.
And, I secretly hope someone sees name on this list and chooses it for their little lima bean. I would savor the credit.