Baby Names

Monday, Dec 8th, we have an ultrasound scheduled. This ultrasound is an anatomical scan to evaluate that the baby is growing properly and that there are no visible health issues. Also, as long as this baby cooperates, we plan to find out the sex of the baby. I don't really know why, but I am more excited and impatient to find out the gender with this baby than I remember being with any of the others; with Colin, we waited until he was born to find out whether he was a boy or girl!

We have named each of the other kids before they were born and haven't ever really struggled with names. We have always had a boy and girl name picked out far ahead of time. For instance, Colin would have been Hannah if he was a girl, Connor would have been Kelsey if he was a girl, Sybella would have been **** if she was a boy (not telling because that is the boy name we are planning on using).

We have always told other people the names as soon as we decided on them but often that implies that we are asking for input, which if you know David and I, once we have decided on the name, we are not asking for input. :)

We have also had "guidelines" for naming each of the kids, which again if you know David and I, is no surprise. With the boys, their names had to be of Irish origin, not super-common, and not easily turned into nicknames. With the third child, 6 years had elapsed, and we had changed some in our perspectives, we wanted the name to be complimentary to the others but didn't have such firm guidelines. We discovered Sybella's name in a movie! There is a Princess of Jerusalem (from the time of the Crusades) who's name was Sibylla, also commonly spelled Sybilla. We loved this name immediately. After a couple of days though, we decided to go with Sybella (another derivation of the name Sybil) so that IF we wanted to call her Bella, we could- violating our previous nickname guideline. Funny enough, besides the boys calling her "Baby Bella" when she was tiny, we rarely call her Bella, she is simply Sybella.

With this baby, we haven't shared the names yet, because we haven't decided on names yet. We have a boy and girl first name picked out; we have a middle name for a girl but are grappling a bit with the middle name for a boy.... So, that begs the question, what to do? Some of the options we have considered:

a. wait until we know if it's a boy to worry about it

b. open it up to a poll of our friends and family (actually ask for input)

c. pray that it's a girl and forget about boy names all together

d. change our "secret" criteria for naming this baby in order to find the name that fits

e. wait until we see the baby to figure out the middle name

f. change the first name that we have picked so that "pairing" it with a middle name that fits our guidelines is easier

Fortunately, David and I agree and have similar tastes for names, so at least the process is not complicated by disagreements (except maybe how important it is to have this resolved by Monday).

Any comments or thoughts???

Is it a bit crazy that so much thought and emotion can go into a child's name? I know that they will have it forever, unless of course, they start using a new name, embrace a nickname, their friends rename them, or they legally change their name as an adult because they hate it!