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Monday, April 4, 2011

Name that baby!

Names are HARD, man. Sheesh. Who would have ever thought that trying to determine what combination of letters (and possibly symbols: Ke$ha) your child will be known by for life (if they don't hate you and change it as soon as legally possible) would be difficult??

I had a fairly uncommon name growing up.  It's more known now, thanks to Lara Croft and Lara Logan, but when I was a kid the only people who recognized it were old people, who knew it from the movie Dr. Zhivago.  Even now, though, I will say or spell my name and still get called Laura on a regular basis. It doesn't bother me and truly never really has. Chris, on the other hand...well, his name is Chris.  Not only is he Chris, but my sister is also marrying a Chris. And I have two cousins named Chris - one on each side.  Needless to say, though I'm going to say it anyway, he grew up with a very common name and has always been one of many Chrises.

So we have two very different perspectives on names and the importance of popularity and uniqueness.  The names I'm drawn towards are more unique and vaguely (sometimes not so vaguely) British or European sounding. This may be projecting my desire to move to Europe.  However, I don't like names that are made up or that have creative spellings (see: most names from Teen Mom).  I can't tell you what names Chris is drawn towards because he won't give me any ideas (except Riley, which is our dog's name, and Laura, because it'd be "funny"* when people called me Laura to say, "No, that's my daughter!").

*Note: This is not funny at all.  But he also thinks Two and a Half Men has great writing, so I'm not surprised.

Right now we have a front runner. I won't tease you and say that but not share the name: it's Carys, pronounced CARE-iss. Start judging now, it's fine. Little do you know that by judging me you're also judging Catherine Zeta Jones and her perfect eyebrows.  Ok, sure, so she's ACTUALLY Welsh so using a Welsh name for her daughter makes sense, but whatevs. We're just one big global society now, right? What with The Internet and all.  And I'm sure somewhere in my family tree* we have Welsh blood.

*True story #1: There is someone in my family tree named Amerika. **

**True story #2:  I was going through my family history and laughed when I found someone named Pocahontas. "Ha, I can't believe that someone named their kid after her! I wonder if that was the big celebrity name of the time. Oh, wait...what the...this is THE Pocahontas?" True true story; she's like my 12x great grandma.

For middle names, I'm leaning toward Josephine. Josephine was my great-grandmother's name, and an oddly high number of people in our family have "Jo" as their middle name (Chris's aunt, my aunt, Chris's sister). So we could honor a shit ton of people with that. I also love Marie, which is my mom's middle name.  I also love Jane, which has nothing to do with anyone but of which I love the sound of immensely.  Carys Josephine H.; Carys Marie H.; Carys Jane H. Oh, and possibly Carys Thuglife H. if my brother has his way. I admit there's a certain urban charm there.

Chris is done discussing names and is fine with Carys.  However, this only came about after his initial reaction of, "No, that's too weird," which was followed by me reading name lists to him, followed by him getting sick of that, and asking "Which one was your favorite again? Let's just do that. Done." Now he's dead set on it, and I don't know if it's because he LIKES it or because he doesn't want to have to listen to me recite "The 100 Most Popular Names from Soap Operas over the Last Six Years" and ask his opinion on each one.  Either way, he's pretty sure that's her name.

Me, I'm not ready to hang name letters above the nursery, but I do like it. I'm waiting to see what she looks like. Chris disagrees with this approach because he vehemently insists that all newborns look alike. I tried to prove him wrong with the following argument:

Other babies                                 Our baby


(note: not our baby)

But he just went off on some tangent on Google and restricted access and crazy so I stopped listening to him.

However, the point remains that she won't have a name for sure until she's born, and maybe not even then. Have you ever seen me at a restaurant trying to decide on an entree? It's torture for everyone present and involves asking everyone at the table what THEY are getting and Venn diagrams.  Trying to finalize a name is going to be a mind fuck for me, I know it. I'll probably be wandering the halls shoving my baby in the faces of strangers and asking them if she looks more like a Carys Josephine or an Audrey Elise.  Or maybe Story Marie. Or Pocahontas Amerika.

The point is there is no point to this, but don't buy her any monogrammed blankies quite yet, please.

11 comments:

  1. Love the name Carys, you can't go wrong with any of those middle names. :) My fav is Carys Jane (not that that matters, just sayin'). Good luck choosing!

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  2. Well, I just happen to love Carys. Pretty! Why are men so weird about naming a child?!

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  3. Carys Josephine is beautiful! In the rare event that I hear that name, it just sounds so lovely. Good luck with the naming of your little one! :)

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  4. Oh man, the pictures just cracked me up!!! But for the record, I LOVE the name Carys! I promise not to steal it, but I have adored the name since I saw it on TB. I think I knew a Carys at some point growing up, but it's wonderfully unique while also being an actual name, and not some made up BS or misspelling like on 16 and Pregnant/Teen Mom. Which I watch. Shamefacedly.

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  5. Yup, I totally love the name as well. I can't wait to see her!!

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  6. I also love Carys Josephine :)
    The Pocahontas story is pretty damn awesome too!

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  7. Seriously, I love you and the way your brain works. Carys is new to me this year, but I think it's beautifully paired with Josephine.

    I lol'd at Chris' naming process and the comparison of other babies to yours.

    We didn't name Isaac until he was born and changed our minds, going from Micah to Isaac. He just wasn't a Micah.

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  8. Good luck with the naming. I like all of those combinations. It's unique, but so beautiful. :) We have had a tough time naming our two as well...girls names are so much harder than boys!

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  9. I never used to like the name Carys..but now I do. and I have to say I like Josephine the best. Mainly cuz i had kind of wanted to use it for Cailin, but ...well, it's a long story.
    The picture of "your" baby and "other" babies freaking cracked me up. I'm glad I wasn't drinking pop when I was reading this or my laptop would be a mess.

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  10. I'm listening to an audio book with a character named Carys right now :)

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  11. I have a cousin named Karis and I've always loved the name. :)

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