In a parenting magazine I was reading recently, I came across this poll.
Have you ever had second thoughts about your child's name?
Yes--44% No--56%
It made me think about my own children's names. Josh was named after he was born since we didn't know if he was a boy or a girl. We had a list of our top two names for both, but Joshua was #3 and didn't make the "hospital" list. I almost feel like he named himself. After staring at him for awhile, his name just was. Adam, on the other hand, was named before he was born, if only in my head. I knew that even though I thought of him as Adam, we'd have to meet him to see if it stuck. It did. And it didn't take long for either boy to become their names. I can't imagine them being anything other than Josh and Adam.
Julianna, coming into our family so much later, felt different all the way around. First we needed a semi-biblical name since the boys had biblical names. (It bugs me when Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have a sister named Savannah or Meghan or Tiffany.) And we wanted her name to start with an A or J to fit into the family mold. That limited our options, but there were still some good ones: Abigail, Ariel, Anna, Joanna, Julia, Jordan, Jezebel. (What?! You don't like Jezebel?) But I kept thinking of putting Julia and Anna together to make Julianna. Not a traditional Bible name, but still. We were definitely not certain of her name when we drove to the hospital on her birthday. We wanted to meet her and hold her and see who she was. I have to admit that I kind of loved the name Julianna Grace. It just sounded so good together. But I knew that it was a big name. And would need a little girl with a big personality to fill it. I hoped the little girl joining our family was just such a girl. Once all the commotion was over and it was just her, her daddy, and I in the hospital room, I held her and looked at her and somehow just knew that she was Julianna. And although it did take me a little while to get used to such a big name for such a tiny girl, I can't imagine her being anything but Julianna.
How about you? Any second thoughts?
Today's thanksgiving thought:
I am thankful for hope.
3 comments:
Well as you you know. I didn't name either of my babies. Ugh.
I wanted to name Aidan...Ben.
And Abby...Gabriella.
I lost...both times. Dang.
I did try to change Abby's name to Gabby this summer. I called her that for a while as it rhymes she didn't know the difference. It really irked Adam which might have been the other reason I called her that.
Dude...I gave a fake name for myself (sometimes)until I was like 23.
I change names all the time.
Love, Ada
aka Courtney
aka Felicia
aka Miss Jackson.
I don't regret my kids' names. My big thing is thinking of all the possible nick names and making sure they're acceptable. Luckily I don't think Lily and Grace can be shortened much :)
I like my kids' names.
Paul and I had "Kate" picked out as a girl's name pretty much before we were even married. We loved how strong and independent it sounded; any time you see a "Kate" in a movie, she's holding her own.
I liked "Caleb" right away when we found out we were having a boy, but Paul had a lukewarm reaction when I suggested it. I just bided my time through all his suggestions: Tobias, Henry, Samuel. Right before Caleb's birth, he said, "How about Caleb?" as if I'd never mentioned it before. I told him I loved it. :)
If I had any future kids, I'd have to name them something that started with the same sound, like Caden or Kaylee. This way, I have a whole syllable of delay to figure out who I'm talking to!
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