Is it too early to start thinking about NAMES?

My ultrasound is scheduled for October 24!  And I'm still surprised at myself for actually wanting to know the sex of this baby NOW as opposed to the other three babies.  The main reason why I want to know is not so that I know whether or not to buy pink or blue jammies, but because we need help with the NAMING issue!  DH and I pretty much used up all our agreed baby name options with baby #3.  In fact, it took us two hours on the phone while I was in the hospital to try to even come up with the middle name for her because we'd pretty much run out of options at just the FIRST name.  Yeesh.

Here's part of the dilemma:  each of our children has been named after SOMEONE.  #1 was named after her grandmothers (and sort of ME, as my mother and I have the same middle name).  #2 was named after a very close family friend and my father.  #3 was named after her great-grandmother (on his side) and DH's sister (sort of--we changed the spelling a tiny bit).  Now, with #4, we're kind of out of family names we LIKE to name our kids after.

Frankly, I think we're mostly OK with throwing the traditional namesake pattern out the window for this fourth--but I don't want the kid to feel all weird since he has a different naming tradition than his siblings (as if this poor kid won't feel weird enough being 7, 10, and 12 years younger than his siblings). 

My neighbor lent us a baby-naming book, and the kids immediately starting pouring through it to look for names for their new sib.  I am LOVING this.  DH has posted some of the "findings" and his other thoughts about the naming issues on FB.

 So our neighbor was kind enough to loan us a book which claims to hold the best 50,001 baby names. ...Our [kids have] been doing some preliminary research using said book. So far I've found two lists, which combined contain the following:

Boy - Aidan, Ian, Nicholas, Link, Diego, Tiger, Alexanddr [sic], Gus (!)

Girl - Zelda, Penelpe [sic], Alexandra, Olivia, Easter

I'm partial to Gus and Zelda so far."

That last line was sarcasm.  Although, it was interesting how many folks responded and said that they liked the name Zelda.  And really, it DOES seem to go well with our last name.  But...do I really want to let my older kids name my youngest after a video game character?  (I already had to veto Mario and Luigi.)

EASTER?  Kids, REALLY?????  EASTER???!

And then there was this:

Gus is starting to grow on me, as is Olivia. How can Gus not be the coolest m'fer in the room? And Olivia, of course, can be shortened to Ollie, which is awesome because it reminds me of the old Fretter commercials. "Oops! Ollie overbought!" Think of the potential: "Oops! Ollie oversaturated her diaper!", "Oops! Ollie overfed the fish!", "Oops! Ollie overextended her credit!", "Oops! Ollie overthrew the President of Cuba!". Hilarity!



Yes, I realize not everyone will get that humor as I think that commercial was somewhat regional, but even though I grew up in a different city, I remembered it.  (But...don't shoot me, but I'm not a big fan of the name Olivia.  OR Gus.)


DH's next post:

Searching for more inspiration, I come across Beatles songs:

Michele - I like it, but a couple ex-girlfriends with the same moniker make me say no.

Martha - hmm
...
Prudence - REALLY big fan

Eleanor - meh

Jude - big fan. BIG fan.

Lucy - very big fan

Madonna - uh. no.

Penny - reminds me of Pee-Wee Herman, which is good ... and bad.

Rita - NO

Desmond - nah

Mr. Kite! - too eccentric, even for me

Maggie Mae - only reminds me that my (now) 2nd favorite niece hasn't accepted my friend request, and makes me sad, so no. Plus, Maggie Mae is "dirty".

Mary - it's been done

Jo-Jo - would prefer not to encourage a future as a drug dealer

Sadie - yeah, not happening

Julia - yeah, I like that one

Molly - not bad

Pam - nah

Rocky - BADASS, but no

OK, so while we have now established that both my husband and I like the names Prudence and Jude, let me just add that I'm not really sure that Prudence, even though I love it, is a name that "wears well" in this day and age.  Too old.  Too many unfortunate nickname possibilities.  But Jude?  Jude I think will still wear well.

This got me thinking, though.  I have tried many, many times to get my own grandmother's name inserted into possible child-naming situations, and it has never really worked.  The name is Loretta.  I do LOVE this name.  It's never really worked with us I think partly because of all the syllables (couldn't make it match with other names we liked), and...I am also worried that it won't wear well with this day and age.  But...how can you not like the name Loretta?  And...it's in a Beatles song!  "Sweet Loretta Martin."  Oh...um, unfortunate lyrics with that one.  Ah...well....

And...still trying to stick somewhat with the namesake tradition, if we have a son, I still would like to name him Ian (which would have been #3's name if she had been a boy--hence the reason the kids were kind enough to put in on THEIR list--they know is a parent favorite) as it's sort of a derivative of my DH's name, and a way to sort of name a kid after him.  Problem--we couldn't figure out a middle name to go with it. 

Along the same line of thinking, I'm trying to come up with a way to name a girl after my husband.  I'm not sure I can do it without copying directly from a favorite blogger of mine.  (Do you think she'd care?  She hardly knows me!)  I'd probably spell it Johnna, though.  Maybe.  Another possibility:  maybe Johanna?  Or just Joanna?  Joanne?  Jo isn't quite the same as John, but you know, SIMILAR.  (STILL need middle names with all these!  I may have to beg Swistle for help!)

So, here is where we're at with the names right now.  Until that hopefully good and revealing ultrasound next month where we'll be able to cut our options in half.  Until then I'm just anxiously awaiting this 16th week, as that is when I felt the baby move with all three other pregnancies.  I am hopeful to start feeling some flutterings soon!