If we had remained in the dark about what was between the legs, we'd also be put in the position of "ranking" each gender's names. In other words, we'd have our "first choice" of a complete girl's name and a "first choice" of a complete boy's name. We would have to drop our second choice names in the event we ended up with a boy/girl combo. This is altogether way too much math for my English major brain, so for this reason and others, we decided to find out what we were having.
Knowing we're getting one of each (at least according to the last ultrasound) has simplified things. Of the four names we need, we've settled on approximately one: the first name of the little boy. It is the name we had picked out at the last minute during my first pregnancy, had Isabella been a boy. Baring any last minute substitutions, my son will have the name Nicholas.
The girl's name is posing a bit of a problem. I adore the name Lucy. It's short and sweet (unlike Isabella) and also unlike the name of my first-born, it hasn't been in the top five list of girl names for the past four years. There's only one problem. The hubs doesn't really like it.
He is more fond of the alternative I suggested: Lucia (pronounced Lu-cee-a). Does this sound familiar to you? Long-time readers might remember that I originally wanted to name Isabella Ella. Once again, the hubs wasn't a fan, and suggested we name her Isabella, and then I could call her whatever the hell I wanted. And while in the early days of her life I would refer to her on this blog as Ella, the name never really caught on. Now, we don't call her as anything other than Isabella.
So, here's where you come in. As much as I love Lucy (you never would have guessed I was that clever, eh?) and would settle for Lucia, I'm open to suggestions. Got four boys and closing up shop but still holding on to that killer girl's name you never got to use? Let's hear it! Pregnant sister-in-law steal the name you have picked out for your yet-to-arrive little one? We'll probably never meet IRL, so let me steal it too!
If you happen to suggest the name we end up picking, I will come up with a fabulous gift and send it to you. Of course, we're about to start dining on Ramen Noodles and tap water starting fairly soon here, so the giftie might be a homemade production...courtesy of my cats...but let me assure you that despite their geriatric state, they're actually quite talented in the domestic arts.
What are you waiting for? Name my kid!
A family friend's little girl is called "Saskia" which I just LOVE, but couldn't steal since they're too close. ;) Tabby was "almost" many things ... Fiona (couldn't do that one because of the song Scotty Doesn't Know), Molly (well really, Mary, but molly for short, but tha means "bitter"), Jane (hubby vetoed), Calleah (Callie for short), and on and on. Have you seen that thing where you put in your name and your husband's name and get baby names from it? That was kind of cool. Well I can't wait to find out what you pick. :)
Aw,this is fun...but I have noticed a distinct difference betw US and RSA name choices but here are a few of my favourites:
Savannah
Faith (obviously!!my DD2's name)
Kyra-Leigh
Emma
Raine
Tatia (Pronounced Tasha)
Mia
Cant wait to see what everyone else comes up with!
I love the name Lucy. It is really beautiful. I am partial to the name Julianna. I also like Sophie, Alexis, Abigail, and Elizabeth. For boys, Nicholas is one of our favorites. If they turn out to be wrong on the sex (happened to my son's BIL) I like Jonathon, Benjamin, and Matthew. I LOVE the name Jordan, for either sex, but the hubs would never consider it. How fun!
I will be thinking about this! Love the name Nicholas. I like Lucy too.
I'm all about flow & syncopation with the first & last name.
Any family names you're considering? We were thinking Catherine for a girl, because it was my husband's grandma's name..
Have to chew on this for a bit...
Seriously love Lucy!
Hannah would have been Jackson
Jacob would have been Rachael
Bridget would have been Bryce
Their middle names are Grayson, Thomas, and Pauline.
We almost named Jacob - James or Colin
We almost named Bridget - Miriam
I like Molly, Beatrice, Ailish (Irish name). Ian vetoed Beatrice and Ailish, but he liked Molly.
Of Ian's choices (get ready) - I vetoed Mo and Van (wtf?)
Oh - Bridget (since we originally thought she was a boy) was almost Harlan, Hyde, or Harley.
That enough names to make you dizzy??
I really like Nicholas & Lucy! But since you asked. =) IF we ever end up with a girl (a big if since I'm not even sure we'll try again), she will most likely be Danica Carol or Ainsley Amanda. IF we have another boy, we will be in serious trouble trying to figure something out!
But also on my list of favorite girl names....
Avery, Addison, Katherine (not sure why, but I've always been found of Kate's), Riley, and Lilly.
Happy naming! =)
Olivia
Grace
Maya
Boys: Austin, Aiden,Gavin
Names are so subjective. My absolute favorite might be the ONE NAME that someone else despises. But, the names I have always loved that never worked out for our family are:
Aiden
Colin
Avery
Charlotte (love!)
Andrew (Drew or Dru)
It's funny that you like Isabella, Lucy and Nicholas because my grandmother is a child of 7 and those are 3 of her siblings' names! The other names are Anthony (Tony), Jennie, Joseph, and Carmella (Italian, anybody?)
Hi! Love your blog.
I like for a girl:
Maya
Kate
Boy:
Aiden
Josh
Most important should be the way the first and last names flow! Good luck!
My SIL stole the name you already used: Isabel (that's how I planned to spell it she chose the variation closer to yours).
My personal girl fav is Gabrielle but hubs won't agree to it, so feel free to use it. And even if I ever get my way (or get a baby for that matter) you can still use it. I also like Sophie and Annabeth. Hubs likes Abigail.
Nicholas is our boy name already and by some miracle we both like it. For the middle I was waiting to see what a birthmom might have in mind and my own backups are Owen and Alexander.
What a fun post and idea! And my cousin stole our first name choice! I seriously thought my family was the only one that did things like that...
Bob and I actually agreed on most names, but he put his foot down on the several Irish names that I thought were really pretty.
In his defense, my strong southern accent does not do justice to Siobhan. Still, I think it's a pretty name.
In high school I had two friends that always (ALWAYS) got complimented on their names. I'm sure they won't mind if I pass them on to you -- Annemarie and Julianna. Neither had a middle name, I guess because their first names were a combo.
Had our boys been girls they would have been Eva or Sophie. Sophie then got changed to Aimee once my SIL laid claim to Sophia for her yet-to-be-conceived baby girl, as it was her aunt's name.
I also really like Lucy. Another variation could be Lesia (pronounced like Lasha or Leesha or as is).
Fun! I love talking about baby names. Something I will probably never be able to do with hubs again.
I got name ideas for ya... but I will email them to you... but I found this on the web... and used this a lot when looking for names for Lore...
Draw backs-
Teasing Nicknames:
Juicy Lucy
Lucifer
Loud Lucy
Lucy Goosie
Loose
Poocy
Lucy Lastic
Lucy Locket
Lu-Lu Bell
Lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds (from the Beatles song)
Associations:
''Lucy'' is the nickname of the fossilized remains of an early hominid, discovered in Africa, whose species may be ancestral to humans.
http://www.babynamer.com/lucy
I love Lucy, but I also love Lucia. I am very fond of names that are not trendy, as you know:)
So... Bearing that in mind, I like:
Beatrice (we would have used this except it was my grandmother's name and my father hated his mother)
Maya
Mia
Anabel (you may be stealing this from our third child if there is a third child. Also, it may be weird with Isabella)
Stella (this is becoming much more popular, though)
Annika
So, there you go. Will you be calling Nicholas Nick? I like the name Niko as a nickname for Nicholas, too.
Mommy's brother and his wife named their little girl Beatrice. When someone commented about another little girl having a stripper name, they said that's why they gave Beatrice an old lady name so she woudn't grow up to be a stipper. :)
Daddy's niece is named Audrey, which we also like.
Or, if you want something unusual, Mommy's name is Marlys (pronounced MAR-lis). It is also a character's name in Lynda Barry's comic strips.
LOL....two different commenters picked my daughters' names, Kyra and Mia.
So here are the 2 other names I was considering for Mia, which is the only one we ended up agreeing on:
Celeste
Jolie
I'll be so, so jealous if you pick either one since I love them both, but hey--I'm not having any more kids.
We must share a brain, b/c I was planning on doing a name post later today!
I do like the name Lucy, but my neighbor growing up had a dog named Lucy, so it will forever be a pet name for me....that shouldn't keep you from using it though.
Since we have two girls to name, I can't give away the ones that are still options for us, but here are a few that I liked that we have ruled out for various reasons:
Layne, Eliza, Fiona, Addison, Amelia, Nina, Marianne, Aislinn...I could keep going.
Names finding is just so hard, we are still struggling come up with a name for a boy .
If it was a girl baby would of been Charlotte Grace, i just love the nickname Charlie.
I think Lucy is lovely though and was on our short list.
I could totally see you lovin' a Lucy. (Hee hee!)
Some "leftover" girl names we had include Tierney, Cadence (Cady for short, as in Elizabeth Cady Stanton) and Araceli (that's a Spanish name). As a kid, I liked the names Jodi and Diana.
Nicholas is cool too!
I love Nicholas.
For girls, we would have named them Charlotte and/or Caroline.
I also really like Katherine.
Old-fashioned, I guess. :-)
Lucy is a great name, and one that would carry her from childhood to adulthood without sounding either too old when she's young, or too young when she's old.
My very favorite girl's name has been Emma, but it's far too popular now. My new favorite is Noelle, and I like Virginia but would loathe people using the nickname "Ginny" or "Jenny".
I'm a fan of names from which you can't make nicknames, maybe because my own is one.
Good luck with the decision! Everyone's had some great suggestions so far.
For girls:
Ruby
Hazel
Skylar
For boys:
Shane
Luke
Okay, I'm delurking to put my 2 cents in. I'm biased, my real life name is Lucy! It has served me very well and is a name that works for all ages. In response to Shannon's comment, ahem yes, I've had them all but give me name that doesn't a nickname associated with it! Oh and my mobile/cell phone ring tone is "Lucy is the Sky with Diamonds"! Anyway, it's a name that has served me well and I think Lucia is a lovely name too.
I've always loved the old fashioned names you don't hear much these days: Alice, Charlotte, Jocelyn, Diana, Worth, Jane, Cecily, Nora, Josephine.
Have you stumbled across the Baby Name Wizard, the interactive graph that culls its info from the top names via Social Security index, from 1880 to the present? It's fun and addictive! You can see which names are too trendy or haven't been used in decades:
http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager
One of names I've always loved is Maisie with the proper name being Margaret. Margaret fits with the properness of Isabella and Nicholas, but Maisie is fun like Lucy. Lucianna as a proper name would also go great with Isabella and Nicholas, and you could use Lucy.
I love baby names and I think whatever you choose will be absolutely perfect!
How about "Luciana" Loo-cee-ah-na? Fits better with Isabella. I like kids names to match. Both my boys have three names, even their initials are 'even'. One of them is RCRM (M being our last name) and the other one, is MRMM.
I really like Lucy. And I like Luciana too (like the suggestion above, only I would pronounce it the Italian way as Loo-chee-ana.)
But maybe something else? I LOVE the name Madeleine, but won't be using it because it's the fiance's grandmother. And while we like her just fine, it's not how he wants to picture his daughter I guess. Also:
Catherine
Lily
Lucrezia (My cousin's daughter was named this.)
Grace
Sophia
Good luck!
We had picked out Sophia for a girl. I also like Olivia, Allison, Caroline, and Samantha. I can't wait to hear what you choose.
Hi! I love your blog. I came over from theAsthmaMom :)!
We have four kiddos and I love their names. You can use any of their names :)
Elyssa (from Elizabeth meaning consecrated by God)
Sarah (Princess)
Emma (I cant remember meaning! I got my way on this name b/c it was a horrid pregnancy full of complications and a miracle she is healthy as a horse! :)
Nathanael (means Gift from God! :)
OR if you want a REALLY rare name you could use mine.....Nadya :)
I have only met one Nadya with my spelling! :) My name is Russian (my dad is russian Jewish from NYC)
Have fun! :)
i just had to recomment on the smiles I got from some of the comments talking about loving names that aren't as popular. Mainly because the names listed in those posts are names you will MOST CERTAINLY hear on the playground with their last initial after it.
If popularity is an issue for you(i.e. you don't want a popular name) I will say that you should go to the names of OUR generation. I know, I know: Kristin, Michelle, Jenny, Amy, etc. sound so commonplace, but they are names that you will NOT hear anymore.
But I personally know at least one if not MORE babies named ALL of the names that we find "different." Mainly because we were raised in the same generation, and names are on cycles.
In our playgroup and in my kids' classes this year (not even taking into account the classes from last year, ok?) I knew kids with these names:
Ava
Nicholas -3
Molly
Emma
Avery -2 (boy and girl)
Hannah
Jacob -several
Aiden
Mia
Annika
Jocelyn
Grace -3
Sophia -2
Zach - several
Zander (Xander) -2
Again, I'm not saying that those aren't great names, I'm just saying that if you ARE looking for unusual names, well... the ones we all like are popular for a REASON!
I love Lucy, and Kate, Sara, and Amelie
For a boy--I can't get past Colin. I just love it.
I'm a little late catching this post, but wanted to play along. I have a Francheska (we call her Frankie) which would go with your first little ones name. I love the name Emma Grace. One name that I wanted to use, but was vetoed was Kennedy. Lynley and Sydney are very pretty. Not sure any of these help, but wish you the very best anyway :).