Tuesday, March 22, 2011

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.

9 comments:

Kerri said...

First of all, you are CUTE and SPORTY!! What are you talking about?! You're the workout queen!
And, I have always liked the name Jennifer. I had a roommate in college that would only go by Jennifer...nothing else!

If Brady was a girl, he was going to be Paige! I have always liked the name Brady b/c of Days of Our Lives....and good friends of ours have a BRADEN who was 2 at the time. We were so nervous to ask them if they mind if we had a son and named him Brady. They didn't seem to care at all. It's kind of totally different since they only call him Braden.
I am sitting here trying to think of other er ending names and my mind is blank! Boys names are so hard I think. I did just see a new boy on another blog...and I loved his name. Again, mind is blank. When I think of it....I will let you know!

Karen said...

Picking names is so hard! My husband and I always had totally different ideas about what would be good boy names. I liked names like Seth, Jacob, and Liam. My husband really really wanted to name one of our boys Diesel. Get the idea?

Ok - now I am on a mission to come up with -er ending boy names. At the moment, I'm having the same problem as Kerri. My mind is blank. I'll have to get back to you on this one.

Unknown said...

I like Conner. You could do Christopher or Tyler.

Jill said...

Another boy how sweet! :-) Follow your heart, if there's a name you really love go with it. I'm sure your friends would understand. I have a tough time with names too. But I wish you all the best in deciding, lol.
Blessings,
Jill

Becca said...

I like Tucker too, but...well just play the name game with it...Tucker, Tucker Bo Bucker banana fanna fo ______. No good!

Hmmm.... Hunter? I feel for you. If I had to name another child my head would explode! lol

Kristin said...

I had a friend in NY who had a son named Spencer. ummm I never would have thought to do the name game with Tucker-that was a good call Becca :)

I keep thinking......

Kristin said...

Bored....so I did a search.....

alexander, bridger, carter, chandler, chester (I had a cabbage patch doll named Chester), christopher, conner, cooper, denver, dexter (ummm), Elmer :), Fisher, Fletcher, Gunner, Jagger, Kiefer, River, Sawyer, Tyler, Walker (hmm that might not go so well with your last name)

side note: saw the name Dayton... :)

I don't envy you this job. It wasn't until I was going through the list of names that I remembered how hard it was. So many brought up memories, good and bad.

Two names we didn't use that I still love: Nathaniel (we were going to call him Nate) and Xavier (but Zach and Xavier were too close)

Good luck!

Sarah said...

I LOVE the name game!! I'm so happy you decided to have another so I could play along :)

When you said you were having another boy I wondered if you were going to stick with the ers. I think it's a great idea. My er vote is for Asher! I love the name Asher-good considering I have one right. :) We have met a few Ashers, but it will never make the top 100 names list

I was trying for River when we were playing the name game with Sloan, but Todd wouldn't let me revisit my hippy days.

This is fun...let us know what you decide...or I guess we'll wait till he comes for the big reveal.

I think I call you Jen sometimes, does that offend you? I can stop, it's just a bad habit of mine to shorten names. I guess I think of you as cute and sporty - which you totally are :)

{cindy} said...

Hi there,
popping in to say congrats!
just say your comment on Karen's post that you are expecting!! That is soooo awesome! We are still hoping and praying for number 4 over here too! God bless your pregnancy!!
Have a happy day