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?