What's in a Name?

As everyone knows, one of the biggest questions you get asked while pregnant is "So what names are you thinking about?" Some people have their names picked out from the moment they find out they are pregnant. "If its a boy its going to be ____ and if its a girl its going to be ____." That is perfectly fine and works well for some people. Matt and I, however, are not those people. I firmly believe you can't know the name for sure until you see the child. Don't get me wrong, Matt and I have names picked out. We have it narrowed down and will probably be 99.9% sure of the child's name by the time we find out the sex. But we are not going to tell anybody the name, or any names we like for that matter, until the baby is born. We have many reasons for not wanting to share the name until his or her birth day and here is why:

I had a friend who was trying to decide between three names she liked. She told her mother-in-law the names and her mother-in-law really liked one of them. So she went out and bought a whole bunch of stuff with that name on it. Well, then my friend was stuck. I probably would have changed the name out of spite, but she was nice about it and her son was thereby named by his grandmother.

I have another friend who told her family the name they had chosen. The family then spent the next two hours making fun of the name. Coming up with nicknames and ways that child could be tortured for having that name in elementary school. After that, the name was ruined for them and they ended up changing it to something else by the time the baby was born.

Bad associations. When my sister told me they were naming their son Joshua, I was less than thrilled. I dated a guy named Josh and he turned out to be a really big jerk. So until little Josh was born, I had bad associations with that name. The minute I held my new tiny nephew I knew the name Joshua was perfect and I've loved it ever since. But I almost wish I hadn't known his name until I saw him. Then I wouldn't have had those bad associations to begin with.

Another person I know had her little girl's name all picked out from the time she knew what she was having. She loved this name and had wanted to use it for a daughter for many years. Her little girl was born and she looked at her tiny little face, and the name didn't fit. She just didn't like it for her daughter once she had seen her.

Matt and I went out to dinner with his family Saturday night and it was really funny because when the name question came up, we started like we usually do and threw out ridiculous names. "We're thinking Rastis Bo-didilly or Thadeus for a boy and Christina Miss for a girl." (Chris Miss Carroll, get it?) They laughed but didn't drop the subject like most people do when we throw out funny names. They wanted to know what names we were thinking of. So we told them how we wanted to keep it a secret until the baby was born. They didn't seem to like that very much. We told them a few reasons why we weren't sharing our choices with anyone, but they still tried to convince us that they wouldn't do or say anything to ruin a name for us. Nor would they name the child for us. I don't really believe they would do anything to ruin a name for us, I don't really believe anyone would, but I still want to keep it a secret, sorry. So you can ask, you can suggest, and you can pester all you want. But I'm sorry, no names for you.