what's in a name

Parker James, Tanner John, & Zoe Abigail

Photo from 2010

How do you feel about picking a name for your child? Oh my gosh, I stress about it so much. I have the most common name on the planet, really, Jennifer. At least my mom gave me Renee as a middle name, so I am sort of unique. All the Jennifers I know are Jennifer Marie or Jennifer Lynn, I ask, it drives Zoe crazy but I always ask a Jennifer (reading nametags!). I have only met one other Jennifer Renee at a scrapbooking thing no less, and she goes by Jen Renee. I never thought of myself as a Jen, Jens are always really sporty and cute. Me, not so much. I am Jenny or Jennifer (to my family). I am ok with it, luckily Jennifer kind of lost its luster and it is slowly becoming old fashioned, like Sarah, Sophia, or Katherine used to be. Maybe it will be in vogue when it is time for me to have a granddaughter.

I hate trying to figure out what would be appropriate for a child and an adult. I scour baby name books finding nicknames that might be questionable (i.e. cause major trauma for my child during their teen years). I look at their initials combinations. I have already begun to search the web for names for #4. It is overwhelming.

I like sort of different names (not celebrity different- Apple or Moses or Honor) but not run of the mill (being one of three Jennifers in all my classes kind of traumatized me). When I was pregnant with Zoe, I knew she would either be Zoe or Parker (I picked Zoe and Paul picked Parker.) So then came Parker, we knew he would be Parker or Paige. Then along came Tanner. I had picked Tanner and Olivia. One of my besties from college also had a Tanner a few months before I did. I was so worried that she would be annoyed that I took her name choice, I dreaded it for weeks before finally telling her that we had picked the same name. She lives in another state so it's not like we are seeing each other all the time! She promised me she wasn't mad so I was feeling ok when Tanner was born.

Then, SURPRISE! Here comes #4, we have never found out gender before but I felt like this time we had to, we have a lot to organize and I have to begin purging baby clothes, they are taking over my basement (that's a whole different post)! Anyway, I was convinced this one would be a girl. Surely the good Lord would give me a boy, three boys! Just for the reason that I hate going to the grocery most days, Dear Lord, do you know how many groceries I am going to have to buy in the next 18 years?!!? I mean the gallons of milk alone, are totally frightening!

Anyway, I thought we would have an Olivia and boy names just never really entered my mind. Two ultrasounds later, we are 99% sure he is in fact a he, it was pretty obvious if you know what I mean. ;) So here I am wondering, boy names... I want it to be an -er ending name so #4 doesn't feel left out from his other brothers. But I don't want it to sound too much like Parker and Tanner. Hmm, this is really hard! I mean, I like these: Tucker, Conner, and a couple more but none are sounding like the "one." So how would you feel if someone picked the same name as one of your kids? I mean, really, be honest. Some of the names I like are very similar or the same as some friends, hey my friends have great taste! I had no idea anyone would name their daughters Zoe, I had never met a Zoe until I had a Zoe, now they are everywhere!!! I thought naming my daughter after a Lenny Kravitz song (and his daughter by the way) was just so unique and different. Just ask any Jennifer... being uniquely the same isn't so bad.