Friday, May 9, 2008

The Responsibility of Naming


When we had Ella I was struck by the responsibility of choosing a name for this new person. It is a very humbling task for me. It is also one of the best and most fun parts of having a baby. I started thinking of names for the next baby the minute Ella was born. My husband, I am pretty sure, would wait until the day we left the hospital to choose a name -- he is not quite as obsessed as I am with naming (is that a male/female thing?).

I would really like a name that's "normal", but not overused. I really struggled with Ella because it is so popular right now, but we liked it enough to go with it (sure enough we met a 3 year old Ella yesterday). We are also looking for names beginning with the letter "S". It is Jewish tradition to name your children after deceased relatives (you never name after a living relative) using the first letter of their name. When Ella was born everyone in Mitch's family had been named for so we skipped the tradition. Since then Mitch's aunt has passed away and we would like to honor the tradition by naming after her. Her name began with an "S" and we can use the "S" name as the first or middle name.

We have a disagreement on a boy name and nothing for a girl. I'm looking for suggestions! Do you have names you liked but chose not to use?

7 Thoughts From Others:

Karin said...

So sorry...I asked Matt for his thoughts. He'd like to meet Indiana Jones Gabel someday. I'm suddenly worried for my future children

Chief Family Officer said...

You're certainly right about Ella being popular - my good friend named her daughter that last year!

And I completely agree about naming being a responsibility, and your criteria as well. My husband and I agreed that we wouldn't consider any names that could be easily mocked or made fun of. I honestly don't understand why people do that to their children!

Since I'm pretty sure we're done having kids, I'll share my girl name with you ;) (We didn't tell anyone our boys' names until after they were born.) I love Maya. Also popular, but less so than a few years ago, I think. Unfortunately, that doesn't start with an S. Sorry about that.

How about Samantha?

Grandma said...

Gee, Cammie...wish we were still in Independence, KS to receive this...the cemetery there was over a mile long and sooooo interesting to walk through and read the unusual names we found. I continually called our niece with some suggestions for her little one...IF YOU WANT UNUSUAL..WE HAD THEM! I'm sure we could have found several "S" names for you! (Stephanie thought it was weird for us to do our walking in the cemetery, but it was flat and very interesting! There was a city section, a Lutheran section, a Catholic section and a Hispanic section...all connected and each containing some from the 1800's!)

Unknown said...

Hi Cammie! Congrats on the new babay! You should try the website http://swistlebabynames.blogspot.com/

Great for baby name conundra!

Camille said...

CFO: I had never seen "Maya" before your post. Then it came in a name suggestion today from Baby Name World!

G-ma: What a great idea to go name hunting in a cemetery!! Can you imagine telling your kid how you chose their name??

Robin: Hi!! Are you blogging? GREAT blog! I may send her an email once we find out the gender (although I still think being prepared with both gender names is safer!).

Grandma said...

I have a couple more suggestions for names, Cammie. FIRST....what about STEPHANIE????!!!! Last night as the band concert there was a Sebastian and a Sharlene. I'll keep looking and thinking...IN CASE you don't like these. (Ha Ha)

Camille said...

I'm surprised it took that long for you to suggest Stephanie! :-)

I love Sebastian, but Mitch doesn't like it. That's the problem with naming -- you have to make 2 people happy!

I suggested a boy name yesterday that HE LIKED!!

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