There are very few times in life that you can be genuinely surprised, one of the best is when your baby is born. Baby names are top-secret, in our house, until they can be properly introduced.
Well, except that time I was out to lunch with my sister and my mom and they were trying to weasel a name out of me when I very air-headedly said "Oh-Matt doesn't really like the name I am pining for if we have a girl. I don't know why because I think Corynn is LOVELY." I didn't realize I had actually said it out loud until they repeated it back to me laughing. I am a dork.
However, I am feeling overwhelmingly compelled to chatter on about baby names today. I feel "safe" in doing this because our list is so full of possibilities and we are at such a loss for narrowing it down. It will surely be a surprise still, when Smooch is born, at who Smooch will really be. Not only by gender, but by name.
Here are the stats we usually lean towards when naming babies:
For girls, I LOVE old-fashioned, one-of-a-kind, unique and feminine names. I don't like common names and I never anticipate my girls having pencils with their names engraved on them, thankyouverymuch. (So much so, I am toying with the idea of bringing Dorcas back! hehe)
For boys, we love strong biblical names.
Middle names we save for namesakes.
We don't like names being shortened so we avoid names that can be, knowing it is beyond control of our relatives to restrain themselves. Nicknames are fine, great. But if I name my girl Marta, I don't want her being called Martie. Sorry.
All that preliminary information down: here are some of the names we have been toying with.
For girls:
Marta (but I couldn't bear having a Martie.)
Marijke (Dutch form of Mary. Love it, but no one would be able to pronounce it)
Greta
Meredith (Beautiful, but maybe too common for my tastes)
Sarah (not strange enough)
Gizelle (Matt DOESN'T like this one because it reminds him too much of a gazelle, which in my mind ain't all that bad.)
Odette
Seraphine
Louisa (Matt doesn't like it. pshaw)
Ineke (pronounced Ee-ni-kah)
Heidi (why did I forget to mention that one?)
Matt is being stubborn about girl names, he always is. He doesn't like any of the suggestions that I LOVE. This is nothing new: He didn't like the names Corynn OR Adele' until the girls were snuggled into his arms and then, he said, "the names just fit". He loves them now. And I just can't figure which is the "BEST" name for Smooch, if Smooch is a girl. Am I missing one? Am I missing THE one that just screams Smooch?!
For Boys:
Joses (the brother of Jesus. Matt loves this. But I would hate the inevitable name-shortening of Joe or Joey)
Amos
Keith
Obededum (just a standing joke, btw.) ha ha But it is FUN to say! ;-)
Seth
Aaron (Matt's middle name, but three "A"s in a row?!?)
Ezra (great biblical namesake)
A favorite is Joses, but there is no being firm with the Newman side of the family as far as shortening names. They would do it just to spite us if we asked them not to.
So that's it. Those are the few that have been tumbling about our brains. What do you think?
We have no leanings toward any one name in particular and no secret yearnings for any particular gender. So-if you have a great name to add to our list-tell me, tell me, tell me!
It might just be "THE ONE".
(Who knows? It could be a FUTURE one, too!)
