The Name

Before anybody gets too excited, no, I am not revealing Baby's name on the blog. That surprise will just have to wait until her birth day. That being said, Mike and I have had a boy's name picked out since long before we were expecting. A girl's name, however, has been a totally different situation.

For the longest time, I have had a set of rules laid out that the name had to follow:

(1) must clearly identify the sex...no Taylor, Cameron, Riley or Ryan. These names have become too unisex.

(2) must be fairly easy to spell/pronounce...no Mikaylah, Maddysyn, Kalleigh, Adyson or La-A. This just leads to pronunciation mistakes and headaches when trying to register for school, make dentist appointments etc. You're just setting the kid up for a lifetime of having their name spelled/pronounced incorrectly. By the way, La-A is pronounced "Ladasha" and yes, it is a real name.

(3) nothing so whacked out you have no clue if it's a boy, girl or even human...Sparrow, Swade, Pilot, Petunia, Boppy or Moonstar. Do I really need to elaborate on this point?

(4) watch the initials...heaven forbid should I name my daughter Felicity Anne Taves!

Our boy's name is perfect. It would work for him whether he's a jock, a geek, an intellect or a middle-of-the-pack sort of guy. It will suit him whether he's a lawyer or a brick layer. The girl's name has been a much, much bigger struggle. I always thought picking baby names would be like shopping for a wedding dress - as soon as we said the name, we would know it was "The One".

Since finding out Baby's gender, we've had a few girls' names as the main contenders. Within the last few weeks, we had it narrowed down to two. One fit all the rules and was a classic, beautiful girl's name, but it just didn't feel like "The One". The other name was questionable. When I said it to a few people, they had to repeat the name because they weren't sure they heard correctly. Then, I asked them to try and spell it and they couldn't. As much as I love love love the name, I just couldn't do that to my daughter. So, it may someday be used as a middle name, but never as a first name.

Roughly two weeks ago, we were snuggled into bed. Mike was busy slaughtering enemies on "Call of Duty" and I sat with a baby name book and started reading through every. single. name. As I read each one, Mike and I would both either say "yes" or "no". We were matching on nothing. Names I liked, Mike didn't and vice versa. All of a sudden, I read one name and we both said, "Yes". And that was it. That was her name. It was one we had never mentioned before, but when I read it, we just both knew that was our daughter's name.

Since then, I've been hesitant to use her name when talking to her...just in case the ultrasounds were wrong. But that doesn't stop me from, every now and then, breathing her name out loud just to double check. And every time I say it, it sounds like utter perfection.

5 1/2 weeks to go and counting...