Baby Names

As we head towards the last trimester of this pregnancy, I think it is probably time for Allan and I to start some baby name discussions. Up to this point, it has just been me occasionally hollering across the house, What do you think about ____?, and getting his initial No, I don't think so or Hmmm...I'll have to think about that one or something like that.

Like I said in an earlier post, everyone has baby naming criteria - trendy or unique, family names, alliterations, etc. Here are some of the tendencies we lean towards in our search:

In naming our kids, I have generally looked at Scottish names or those who could at least sound Scottish. I figure we give our kids my husband's family heritage (English) through our last name, so I can sneak in my love for the Cash homeland through our childrens' first names. The problem is that the Scottish people have some weird names for our culture, like Alastair, Chalmers, Finlay, Malise, and Ogilvy (isn't that a butter spread or something?).

We tend to be drawn towards names that are not too high on the popularity list but that are not totally unheard of either. When Trinity was born, her name was ranked about 75th in popularity; two years later, Connor was around 60th (they've both moved up the lists since then).

I don't need the name to start or end in any particular letters. In fact, I think I look towards names that are not the same starting letters of any in our family.

I like my boy names to be manly; I prefer my girl names to be strong and feminine. I leave the boy names in the boy list; the poor guys are running out of options!

For the middle names, we, somewhat accidently, ended up with a similar bent. Rose and Sage are both one syllable words that are both a plant and a color. At this point, Jade is the only other word to match that trend that we can think of!

My friend, Jennifer, who is due this next month reminded her readers to carefully consider the acronym made by the child's initials, as well. I have read that kids with positive acronyms (GOD, ACE) are happier and more well adjusted than those children with less appealing initial combinations (DUD, ASS, DOG).

So, with our criteria in mind, feel free to NAME OUR BABY! I started to share some that have lingered on our lists through the years, but I'd like to start from scratch. I'll keep you posted on the progress...