Fun With Names: Family Ties

I've been thinking about names a lot lately. It started at yoga when the teacher asked us all to include the name of our future baby during the introduction. People, I had a panic attack. My thoughts were racing - oh my God, I don't want to tell these people my names. Nevermind that I will never see them again and I don't know any of them. So i just said, "We haven't decided on names yet". This is not a lie - we have a shortlist of names and it likely is going to stay that way until we meet Baby S.

For a while I was regularly posting Fun With Names. I haven't done one since March 21. Two months to the day. (No I did not plan this).

So let's get down to it with Family Names!

I LOVE the idea of using family names. In fact, our middle names are pretty much decided and both (meaning our boy middle name and our girl middle name) are family names (and are NOT on the list below, sorry!). I probably like this because I tend toward more old-fashioned sounding names. Unfortunately, my husband is not in the old-fashioned sounding names boat with me. BOO! So here we go -

Henry. LOVE THIS NAME. I love it. We probably will use this at some point still if we have boys boys boys. This is my maternal great grandfather's name. Grandpa T. He is still alive and kicking at 93. Witty and spry as ever. In fact, if you have ever seen my family pictures, you will notice him b/c my mom and my nana are obsessed with five generation pictures and they always pull him in on one.

William. LOVE THIS NAME TOO. This is my maternal grandfather, "Pa"'s, name. Unfortunately my cousin also has this name. And he definitely goes by Will or William, which is how I would want it - not "Bill, Billy or Mac or Buddy" (sheryl crow). Pa goes by Bill. So would I NOT name my kid this since my cousin has the name? Maybe. It definitely isn't on the shortlist for baby #1.

Thomas. My dad's name. I think it's a cute boy's name. Again, I run into this issue where I would want his name to be Thomas and not Tommy. I have another little cousin named Tommy and my cousin married a Tom. So a lot of Tom action in my fam. Still, I like the name. And oh my lord here's where I get picky - I don't like when the first name ends with the same letter as the start of the last name (e.g. Sam Miller). Yes - I am neurotic.

Douglas. My FIL's name. I don't like this as a first name but it would make a good middle name. However, then we run into the same issue about it running into our last name - same with Thomas.

Matthew. This is my GREAT GREAT grandfather's name. Yeah - that's going back far. But my middle name is after his wife, Elizabeth, so when I was younger I always thought I would have a boy and a girl and name them Matthew and Elizabeth. Because of COURSE you can plan having a boy and a girl, right?!?! ha ha ha. Anyway, I also have a cousin named Matt that we never see. Regardless this didn't make the short list. I toyed with varying the spelling to Mathieu after reading the french names section of our baby name book. :)

Carver. My husband and all of his brothers have this for their middle name. It is a blend of both of their grandfathers "Carl" and "Verlin". I thought this was a great idea on my MIL's part. For a very long time, I wanted our son, if we have one, to have this for his middle name. But then my husband and I sort of decided that they should have their own middle names.

I think that's it for the gentleman (well of course save for any names that we may be using....;) )

And now the ladies...

Jane. Love this name. Love the simplicity and classic-ness (is that a word?!) of it. My aunt is named Jane. We see her a lot, but that wouldn't deter me from using this at some point. Again, not Baby #1.

Patricia. My nana's name. I like this one too, although I don't like the nickname variants. The husband does not like this name. Not even for a middle name. So it's off the list.

Elizabeth. My own middle name and my great great grandmother's name. Once upon a time I wanted to name my girl Claire Elizabeth. Then my aunt Jackie had a daughter and named her Elizabeth Claire. I KID YOU NOT. This girl is my god daughter so I don't want my daughter sharing her name. :) Nate really likes this name as a middle name, as do I for myself, but I'm not so keen on it for my daughter. *See Carver above

Esther. Ok. stick with me here. I know this is like the epitome of old-fashioned but I like it. This is my husband's grandmother's name. He doesn't like the name so much so we're not using it this go round. I may still try to fight for this as a middle name though for future babies.

Catherine. My great grandmother's name and Nate's great grandmother's name. EVERYBODY WINS! I would want to spell it Kathryn though. He doesn't like that spelling. And I don't know that I want her called Katie. I like Cat. He doesn't. Plus my BIL is seriously dating a Kathryn. That's not a dealbreaker for me. Put it in the future use file.

Ida. I would want this for a middle name. My paternal grandmother's name. She died a day before my 12th birthday. It was traumatic.

Viola. HOW ADORABLE IS THIS? My great-grandmother's name (married to Henry). She had the most BEAUTIFUL silver hair that my sister and I are really hoping we inherit some day.

Cecilia. My "I don't know how she's related to me but she was always at family functions" relative. She was at our wedding too (which is a big deal b/c only a small fraction of my family were invited). Goes by Ceil. I really like this name but then Jim & Pam on The Office named their baby that. Then I didn't really want people assuming I named her that because of that show - like how everyone named their daughter Emma after Rachel on Friends did.

Germaine. JUST KIDDING. This is my husband's other grandma's name. It is the family joke that her name would work for a boy or a girl (Jermaine/Germaine). She has a good sense of humor about it.

Ann/a. My mom's middle name is Ann. I like Anna. My husband does not.

I think that's it.

My future names post will feature "Names I Love But My Husband Hates". And there are a lot of them. Sniff, Ramona.