The Short List: Baby Name Edition

Now that we have a chosen a name for our baby human,  I'd like to cordially invite you, friends and colleagues to have at the following names we have decided against. Take 'em or leave 'em. Love 'em or hate 'em, this is who I am people. These names are my friends...

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Boys:

Caspian: this was our for-sure boy name until Narnia reared its cinematic head and I cried because I thought, Caspian and Archer sounded so fabulous together. One by land and one by sea! Ahoy! My tears led to Hal's "I hate to break it to you, Bec, but you aren't original" which is actually quite true. I'm not original. None of us are but sofuckingwhat, I love this name.  Anyway, so long Caspian. Thanks for being my "other name" for the past three years and then falling off the boat and into the vastness of your own sea. 

Rex: This is Hal's favorite name, but only because he claims his parents were going to name him Rex so he has this sort of dreamy-love-thing going on. I do agree that Rex is one awesome name, it's just a little (oh, I dunno!?) too... REXY for a first name. As a middle it could have worked, though.

Miller: After my hero, this was what I wanted to name Archer but I big time lost. This time around, I begged Hal to gimme Miller for a middle name. He said, no, but he would have eventually caved, I know it. 

Noble: This was, after Caspian, my first runner-up boy babyname. I think it's strong and bold and special. And it sounds well with Archer and Archer/Hal's last name. 

Bastian: What can I say? I loved Neverending Story

Zephyr:  I don't care what anyone says. Zephyr Miller is a badass name. And Zephyr is one of my all-time favorite words so naturally...

Other boy names we/I really liked that didn't make the shortlist: Cyprus, Dashiell, Gideon and Merrick.

photocredit: bLaugh.com

Girls:
 
Salome: Salome is probably my all time favorite name ever. Unfortunately my family talked Hal out of it because of the whole John the Baptist in the Bible thing. And so what if Oscar Wilde has a famous play based on said story? Aubrey Beardsley made the whole beheading thing seem so chic! Yes, Salome was a bit of a murderous slut in the Bible but, pulease, it was such a phase. Salome also happens to be a variant of Shalom and means "peace" in Hebrew. 

Paisley: It sounds like Daisy and I adore the name, Daisy, I think mainly because of the song, Daisy Bell, which is what I sing to Archer, and my mother sang to me. (One of my dogs is named, Zadie because of its similarity to Daisy.) I also think Paisley is a sweet, eccentric, beautiful name. 

Bijou: Bijou is one of those great french names that make me happy. Like GiGi and Coco and Cherie! It's sweet and chic and Bi (Bee) is cute for short (Bijou means Jewel) but my mom turned me off when she told me it reminded her of a frou-frou dog. Fucking moms screwing with my babynames, man!

Lyric: I adore this as a name even though its a somewhat recent phenomenon. I think it's feminine and perfect. And not to sound totally cheese, but I liked the idea of mixing the love of music (Hal) with (my) love of words and getting... Lyric. 

Mirabelle: It's a lovely, feminine name. Pretty as a picture. 

Chloe: This was one of those names I grew up adoring and yes, it's popular, I do realize but still, I do adore it. It's a perfect girl's name and Hal and I had it on our short list since the beginning. The name will live on in memory, however. After all, I named each and every one of my broken-legged Breyer horses, Chloe, when I was a girl. 

Luella: This name means, "girl warrior" which kind of matches the whole Archer "bowman" thing we got going. Luella came closest to becoming our first choice for girl name (after the Salome debacle)... I still adore it as a name. It's feminine, strong and sounds like wind when you say it aloud. 

Other names I liked that didn't make the shortlist: Zelda, Indigo, Tabitha and Muse

Edited to add: Daisy and Tallulah were also fierce contenders. So were Lucca and Persephone. I love these names. Hal wasn't so much a fan and, well, it's gotta be a compromised effort...

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What about you? What names were/are on your babyname shortlist? And if you are planning on having more kids, would you use any of your shortlist names next time or does your taste in names vary from child to child? 

GGC

135 comments:

Unknown | 12:25 AM

I'm not planning on children anytime soon (famous last words) but I really like Lola for a girl. And I don't care about the Lolita/show girl conotations either. Any daughter of mine will make the name her own.

For a boy, Levi was a long ago favourite and there's the added novelty of seeing your name sewn on everyone's arse. Otherwise, Luka.

I have a thing for 'L's it appears!

Love Lisa!

Zellmer | 4:35 AM

Love Salome. It's also a great song by the Old 97's.
And Paisley is what I was going to name my second daughter, until she turned out to be a boy.

Anonymous | 4:42 AM

I love that your original. It drives me crazy when I hear the same names. I named my daughter Avery, thinking it was something I hadn't heard before. Now every time I turn around I see the name....
I will have to work extra hard on my next one my favorites are millie and Harper.

SciFi Dad | 4:50 AM

We wrestled with this exact question once we learned that our second is going to be a boy (our first is a girl). Do we use her "boy name"? Is it "hers" somehow?

We went through a bunch of iterations with a variety of name combinations, and always found ourselves back at the first one. (Originally, when we were thinking of names, the boy name stuck first and the girl name came much later, so we have had this name on the brain for a long time.)

Now, we're probably about 95% decided that the original boy name will be the name for this baby. There's a small chance we'll go with a different name, but I doubt it will happen since choosing that name will cause my in-laws to feel left out (no seriously... my in-laws are so self-centered that they will make a huge stink about the name of their grandchild if they disagree).

Anonymous | 5:08 AM

My husband is hell-bent on naming our first son (should we have one) Giuseppe. At first I thought "eh", but now I'm totally down.
I love your list of rejects! :)

Quart | 5:22 AM

I pushed HARD to name our daughter Tamsin. I think it's so pretty and unusual (outside of the UK). My husband nixed it because he didn't want her to become Tammy. So she's Naomi, and our last kid. Maybe we'll end up with Tamsin the cat?

Congratulations on your girl. We also had a boy first and it works out beautifully to have one of each! Can't wait to see her (and hear her name)!

motherbumper | 6:04 AM

First up: I love Dashiell but that wasn't on our list (damn, it's almost enough to make me have another). Anyhow, my girl names on the "short list" were Edie, Tuesday, and Madeline. Boys short list were Jack, Vincent, and Viggo. Ohhhh it's enough to make me want another - wahhh. BTW Rex was my granddad's name and I've always thought it was a wonderful name.

kirida | 6:09 AM

I love Dashiell, but not Zephyr. Badass quality and all, it sounds too 1970s quadraphonic rock for me.

Kelli | 6:20 AM

Oooh, Salome is pretty. I can't wait to see what you decided to name her!

My favorite girl names are Adeline, Sara and Katherine. Katherine is what my parents would've named my brother, had he been a girl, so I can empathize with Hal. Plus, how damn cute would it be to call your little girl Kat? I haven't thought about boy names as much (I'm not pregnant in the first place, though we've had a few years of trying!), but we like Graham. My husband found out that several of his ancestors were named Fountain, nicknamed "Fount," so we're also trying to figure out how to incorporate that one...as a middle name, I'm sure.

Anonymous | 6:22 AM

I'm not having children too soon either, but the one girl's name my husband and I totally love is Annaliese. It was his grandmother's sister's name. So pretty.

Anonymous | 6:51 AM

I can even tell you how much flack we take for the names of our twins, LuLu & Puck. They're 3 and my grandmother still calls Puck "Pat" (huh? not even close, gram)

We have 4 kids, so we're DONE...but I consider Lucien, Leo, Forrest, and Rocco to be the names that got away.

Anonymous | 6:58 AM

When I was pregs with Louisiana we had a very hard time coming up with a name. Following Catcher we couldn't just name her Mary. Not the we ever would. For a long while we contemplated Barrett after the mad genius Syd. Then I thought about Harlow (pre Nicole Richie) but the chef wasn't into it. Finally we decided to name her after my grandma & her sister Louisa + Anna. Plus we are big fans of NOLA. So big that we call her Nola sometimes. And Lou. And Lula. And of course Louisiana.

I love love love the name Salome. I would even contemplate reversing the chef's snip snip to name a baby that. Maybe.

Anonymous | 7:15 AM

For years and years I loved the name Caris, but my husband has vetoed that one big time. We like Sophia now. And I also love Sloan. All girls name. We can't decide on a boys name to save our lives.

Brooke - Little Miss Moi | 7:24 AM

I like the names Clementine and Frances. For girls. Don't know about boys names, I don't think it's as easy to choose an original boy's name as it is a girls name... I do like Maksym, but maybe I've been living in Eastern Europe too long.

Anonymous | 7:25 AM

I love Esme for a girl.

Anonymous | 7:44 AM

My daughter is Kathryn. There just isn't a more beautiful, strong name. However, we did consider Lily and Daisy. My son is Connor. another strong, old name.

Anonymous | 7:51 AM

With my first pregnancy I was completely sold on Anneliese. I was convinced that was my baby's destined name. My husband, however, despised the name and we warred about it for the entire 40 weeks. We eventually decided on Avelyn, which suits her perfectly. I am presently 7 months pregnant with girl #2 and we are STUMPED beyond repair. Neither of us have any real front runners. And you know what, even if he changed his mind about Anneliese, I don't think I'd use it this time. I still love it, but feel like it was meant for my first baby alone. Weird, I know.

Backpacking Dad | 8:17 AM

My wife really liked "Mirabel" for a girl.

I told her there was no way I was naming my daughter after an airport in Montreal. Because that's where she found the name.

Thankfully she never thought of spelling it with an "lle" ending or I may have lost that battle.

The Old 97's "Salome" is a fabulous song.

Anonymous | 8:24 AM

Just curious- how come Daisy isn't on the list if you like it? That's what we named our four month old. And we sing the song constantly!

Anonymous | 8:25 AM

Love your names list!! Congratulations on the girl-child! We are currently in an urgent and emergent naming debacle. I am due in about a week with a girl and we are, as of about 2 weeks ago, pretty sure about a name, but yet... I still can't call her the name out loud. We picked the name Marit... which is Norwegian (I have a Norwegian background, and the husb and I used to live in Norway). We also really want to call her Pepper. So, do we middle name her that? Do we just nickname it? Tricky. She is already getting my maiden name as a middle name, so the Pepper-to-other-middle-name flow is not great. But, it would be a way of asserting her Pepper-ness. Hmmmm. I always thought that the naming part would be easy... and it WOULD, if it weren't for the whole "we both have to agree" part. Ha ha. Cheers!

Anonymous | 8:32 AM

I just have to say--Breyer horses!! I was ALL about those when I was younger....my mom still has about 60 at the ol' homestead that she's just itching to give to my daughter, who's still too young for them (actually she'd like to unload them NOW, but I'm stalling her:)

As for names, we're expecting another girl and since we could barely agree the first time, we jumped at the first thing we could agree upon this go 'round--Charlotte (very vanilla, very trendy I know, but I really do like it). And trust me, we went through ALOT of names!

Anonymous | 8:39 AM

We are going to have a rough time next time around. Hubs and I have totally different tastes in names. The only boy name we can agree on is Hugh (and we have no middle name to go with it). He wants Lars or Burton or Gordon. For the longest time we wanted to name a girl Willow but I'm not as keen on it anymore. I like Natalie but it will be a hard sell because hubs doesn't like names that rhyme with our last name (so anything with an ee sound at the end is out according to him). I had a dream that we had a girl and named her Lydia. I had never thought of that name before but once I dreamed it, it sounded great. :)

Lindsay | 8:40 AM

Since I have written stories, I have always had name books around, now that I am older, I am finding them coming in handy for other reasons -- my favorites for girls right now are also popular, like your Chloe (Damn my non - uniqueness). They are: Savannah, Delaney & Madison (I'd call her Maddy of Didi for Short). I Also love Salome and Lyric, I knew a boy named Lyric in middle school. For Boys I like Forrest, Keaton, Kessler and Ephraim.

Sara | 8:48 AM

You have the best taste in names -- so thoughtful! I can't wait to see the name that topped the list. Hope you are well, Sara

Katrina | 9:03 AM

My hubby and I are going to start trying soon... so no kids yet, but we have the names picked out! haha. Our first daughter will be Chloe Rose. (I didn't like Chloe at first, but he insisted on it, and it has grown on me. I really like it now.) Our first boy will be after him, Joshua David, but we will call him JD.
Other than that I like Kahlen (Kay-lynn) for a girl, and Micah or Caleb for a boy. =)
I like the names you guys decided against, and can't wait to hear what you decided on!

Anonymous | 9:19 AM

here is my favorite name for a girl, I "made it up" as I've never known anyone with the name, alas friends teased us about it being so boozy so hubby chickened out and we used it as Emma's middle name. I regret caving in and I hope she swiyches over to it one day, lol. It is....Merlot, as in the wine.

Unknown | 9:21 AM

We're not ready for the babies just yet, although we're getting married in 6 weeks (eep!). I have a similar fascination with names though and for years I've wanted to name a boy Sorley. It means 'summer traveller' which I love, and it was the name of a famous Scottish poet. My fiance thinks it's too much like 'sorely' and doesn't like it, but I've a fair while to work on him yet...

I love some of your nearlies, especially Tabitha, but we couldn't use Paisley as my fiance is from Northern Ireland.

Oh, and both my fiance and I share a birthday with Henry Miller!

pseudo librarian | 9:38 AM

I've always loved the name Arcadia for a girl. I think it flows nicely and is fairly rare.

Mama | 9:49 AM

I tried to talk my husband into letting me name our next boy (if we have one) Sebastian and I almost had him saying yes. Then I recalled my best friend wanting to name a boy Bastian as well so that went out the window. My Gramma's name was Luella and if I have my way, my next girl is Luella Georgia Jane. My Gramma's and best friend. Yes, has a nice ring to it.

Anonymous | 9:51 AM

My sister named her daughter Zephyr. It seemed weird at the time but now it fits and I couldnt imagine it being a boys name now.

Anonymous | 9:55 AM

our baby is due in eleven weeks. her name is magdalene june.
p.s. mirabelle and talulah were on our list as well.

Amanda | 9:57 AM

At first I wanted to name Jack 'Eliot' (after T.S. Eliot). It ended up not working out for whatever reason, but I'm still in love with the name.

If we do decide to venture into more chilluns, I want to name-

Boy- Vincent

Girl- Adele, Stella (after the Interpol song 'Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down'), Ari, Monet (yes, like the painter), and so forth.

The boyfriend likes- Kayla (I kick myself for this, since I told him thats what my parents were going to name me) & Bruce.

Picking names is THE most fun part of waiting process. Although the semi-fights with the significant other that ensue due to them actually dropping an ex's name into the mix- not so much.

GIRL'S GONE CHILD | 10:00 AM

Lisa -- Love Levi. Good call.

And OH, YOU GUYS! You love Salome? Isn't it perfect? (I'm still mourning...)

Anon- Love Millie and Harper. Know one of each.

SciFi & Amanda - I feel the same way. Otherwise we would have gone with Colette but that was Archer... although it isn't off limits for a middle name. Hee.

Bakersbakery - Giuseppe is badass. Really like it.

Quart- Tamsin is a great name. Naomi is beautiful, too. Classic. And I love MiMi for short. :)

MotherBumper -- Love your shortlist. Tuesday especially! Also love the name you chose. And Viggo and Vincent are great. Love me some strong V and Z and X names.

Kelli- Whoa! Love that "Fountain" is a family name! Absolutely work that in. That's great! There's a relative in my family named Wolf Woolf which I think is kind of funny. I had this fantasy of naming another boy Woolf or Woolfgang so he could carry on MY name as well as Hal's.

Brianna -- Annaliese is gorgeous. Such a sweet, feminine name.

Jaci- LOVE LuLu and Puck! Fantastic names! And they go together so well. Great taste, mama. And Forrest was on my list, too, but Hal said no! Because of the movie. I went to school with a Forrest and a Castle and I always thought they were cool because of their names alone.

Chef's widow -- I love your kid's names. Louisiana is a great name... We loved Luella so we could call her Lu for short (after my late grandfather) and Catcher is so great -- Catcher in the Rye is one of my alltime favorite books. I actually had Holden on our list both times and Hal was anti-my literary references so I got panned every time.

She Likes Purple -- Sloan is great. That was one of Hal's number one choice, but I kept saying "this is Sloan Peterson's father calling..." and then, yeah... Too much Ferris Bueller I have seen. Although Sloan was pretty hot in Ferris Bueller.

Little Miss Moi -- I LOVE Clementine. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Anon -- Second Esme. Classic cool.

(You guys have awesome taste.)

IceCreamMama -- You're totally right. Daisy was major on our list... I added it in the edited to add section. I still adore Daisy... It's my favorite name for a little girl. My only issue was whether she would grow into it but the name we chose is the same that way so Ha! Although, now that I'm thinking about it... How cool would it be to go by 'Dai" or "Day" as an adult. "Hi, my name is Day..." Oh, man. May need to have another just to use that.

Steph -- I like both Pepper and Marit! Maybe wait until she's born and see which one suits her best? That's always a good way...

Birdgal -- Charlotte is a great name. I have never met a Charlotte that wasn't awesome. :)

Ewok -- Love Hugh.. So oldschool frenchie and I love Willow, too. LOVE Willow, actually. I'm a big fan of plant/flower names... I actually had Clover on the list for a minute but then realized it was kind of horse-y.

Lindsay -- Ephraim is great. I have an Ephraim in my first novel, actually. I have always kept name books around for stories as well.

Katrina - You really can't go wrong with Chloe me thinks.

WifeMotherManiac- Merlot is actually quite cool. Lo(t) for short would work on that name, too...

Katharine -- Happy almost birthday to you and your fiancee! Fantastic man to share a birthday with I must say.

GIRL'S GONE CHILD | 10:06 AM

Okay so I just wrote an essay and while I did, more name comments! So...

Bonnie - Arcadia is really pretty... Joan of Arcadia is my only "aw, shucks..." In the same way I was "aw shucks" about Caspian. When it came down to it, we would have likely gone with Caspian for a boy nevertheless.

Mama- Gorgeous. Luella is perfection and Sebastian and Bastian are also great names. My only issue with Sebastian is that I know so many children with that name... Bummer.

Tiffany -- Wow! Really? Zephyr totally fits for a girl as well. I love it!

Langleigh- Congratulations on your litte Magdalene June. Beautiful name. So exciting!

Amanda-- I love Stella and Monet. I was always jealous of Monet Mazur because of her name (Shalom Harlow and Azura Skye, too.)

Beautiful names, my friends. So much fun!

Fraulein | 10:14 AM

Picking from the ones left over from our shortlists...for a boy, I like mostly the Welsh/Irish-sounding names such as Owen, Aidan, Connor, Declan, Nolan, Ronan, and Gavin. For a girl I like Charlotte, Audrey, Norah, and Gwendolyn.

Anonymous | 10:15 AM

My daughter's name wasn't up for debate, as she is named after my grandmother. HOWEVER. Her name still fit into our requirement that our children's names somehow be literary. Her name is Madeline Alice - two famous female characters. If she'd been a boy, the name would have Beckett or Harper after Samuel Beckett and Harper Lee. Yes, I know Harper Lee is a woman. The Hubs and I were just thinking about girls' names the other day, trying to start another list should I EVER decide to get knocked up again. It won't be happening soon, pregnancy and I don't get along.

Nancy Thaler | 10:48 AM

Dashiell was on our short list, along with Everett, Lucas, Orion, Leo, and Desmond. We went through crazy middle name ideas, like Ellison and Bancroft and Frost and Morrison and Devereaux (various idols in there).

We ended up with Archer Douglas (yes, this is the Nancy who said hi in Portland!) The Douglas came from Douglas Adams, my ubergeek husband's favorite writer.

Our girl's list included Edith (I loved Edie as a nickname; no, I never watch Desperate Housewives) and Lila (Grandma's name) and a bunch of others I've blocked from my memory.

I love Miller and Noble, but Rex is a little Rexy. It kind of sounds like a dog's name that the dog could pronounce himself. (Sorry, Hal!) And Merrick makes me think of the Elephant Man. Merrit, on the other hand...

Bijou and Lyric are AMAZING, but your mom was right: I've known a Coco and a Gigi who were both adorable dogs. And since I'm a teacher, I have a weird perspective on names and see Salome re-interpreted on the playground as salami.

Paisley and Zelda are awesome.

A side note: I was literally sitting in the Social Security office filling out the paper work to change my name after I got married (old school, I know) and I contemplated giving myself a wacky middle name. Having grown up without one, I always thought it would be cool to adopt something mysterious and interesting just for kicks. The name I almost wrote down? Indigo--my hands-down favorite from your list.

Maybe someday.

Whit | 11:10 AM

For a boy we had different combinations of Walden, Porter and Buckley, and for a girl we like the middle name Holiday (as in Billie).

Anonymous | 11:19 AM

I also like Darian for a girl.

Rebecca, I would laugh if you said in one of your reply posts, Eh, not so much. You have been really sweet with your responses. :)

Kirsten | 11:42 AM

I love obsessing over baby names. It almost makes me want to have another kid. Not really.

My twin girls are Macy and Avery. Macy always gets asked if she shops at Macy's. She carries her lunch to school in a Macy's shopping bag sometimes.

My son is Anders... good Norwegian family name.

If I had another daughter she'd be Lilah. Salome and Lyric are fantastic. No idea what I'd do for a boy. Although I love some of your choices, Dashiell, Merrick, Miller. So much fun.

Lady Liberal | 11:44 AM

I BEGGED my husband for us to name our daughter Tallulah- BEGGED, I tell you. No dice. He is very lucky I am so collaboratively inclined.
Zelda was also on my short list, as I am a Zelda Fitzgerald fan. That too was vetoed soundly.
Her name is Vivian. :)

I love Mirabelle!

Anonymous | 11:52 AM

my girls: gracie scout - named after my great grandma grace and i've always loved scout and slater jillianne - we just liked slater and named after my aunt jill and a friend who passed away, anne. my boy is finnegan justice. hubs picked out finnegan and justice is my mama's maiden name.

this go 'round, we've been fighting over names. i am still mourning the loss of jasper (hubby thinks 'jazz hands') but we have a girl's name and a boy's name picked out.

molly jamison and tucker harrison (molly and harrison are the family names. so is tucker, really.)

other names that have been vetoed for girls are lola, clayton, celia, daisy & for boys - spence, milo, malcolm, asher, baxter.

i love all of your names and can't wait to see who the little miss turns out to be.

karengreeners | 11:59 AM

i like your names, and for sure you have to have something great to go with archer.

i think my girls both have rockin' names, but i'm still sad that i didn't get to use india, clara, maisie, milo or cedar.

clueless but hopeful mama | 12:06 PM

Love Paisley! and Chloe, but it didn't match our last name.

Our short list last time around included:

Girls: Charlotte, Audrey, Josephine (or Josefina which is a family name), Leah

Boys: Aidan and Dunmore (the lake where I spent summers as a kid). If we have a boy next go round these are both out since we know a slew of Aidens now and Dunmore now makes me think "done more".

It seems the trend with my friends is to make their second kids name more unusual. LIke they got sick of hearing that their first kids name was shared by everyone's neighbor or niece.

Anonymous | 12:09 PM

Did we not agree that if I came to your signing in Orange County you would name the child after me? First name: Dad. Middle name: Gone. Middle name 1a: Mad. Make it happen or I'll call you a welcher.

Anonymous | 12:19 PM

I love Indigo for a girl or boy's name. That's a great one. My all time favorite name for a girl is Liliana, and that's just what I named my baby girl 12 mos. ago! :)(Liliana Grace, actually, and we call her Lily.) My husband vetoed Gabrielle, Esme, Caroline, and a host of others. We could never decide on a boy's name. Thank heavens we had a girl. Can't wait to see what name you picked!

ChefSara | 12:33 PM

kid #1 (a boy) is due in 8 weeks, and his name came to us immediately (keeping it a secret til he's born though). After we said it out loud the first time, nothing has been able to compare to it. We're definitely holding on to our girl name for later (Norah Riley...can you tell I'm Irish?), but other top contenders with Charlotte, Elise, Evelyn, Kathryn...needless to say, we go for the more classic...others I LOVE (but hubs would NEVER go for) were Eleanor, Violet, and Lila. But I have no doubt that if we ever have a girl, she will be Norah Riley!

Anonymous | 12:34 PM

so is she going to be little collette reverie? have i mentioned how much i love reverie? i'd totally use it as a first name. i might have to acquire another pet and name her that actually, because i really love it.

love salome, love love love lyric (DP would never agree though, laughed at me when i said "what about echo?"), paisley is ok but i work at a vet hospital and have met way too many paisley the cats, your mom is also right about bijou and the frou frou dog thing, it's a super common toy poodle and other small dog name. mirabelle and luella aren't my style, i like chloe quite a bit. also really like indigo and muse, especially muse, not so much zelda and tabitha--too much witch-related tv sitcom for me.

i like caspian, i really like noble and zephyr, especially zephyr. i would name a bastian sebastian and probably call him seb, but i still like it. not a fan of rex and miller. i like gideon and merrick a lot, don't like cyprus or dashiell.

lucca and persephone are great, i know a little thea persephone, don't like daisy and tallulah, myself.

if i have the three girls and a boy i keep seeing they will be:

carys seren brianna
maeve anaya briannon
maya soleil brianne
keiran arthur briant

DP is brian and they're getting my last name so that's why the similar second middle names.

and i got DP to agree to all of them so yay for that. i'm still mourning the loss of echo for a little girl though. i also really really like sela (or selah), pronounced see-lah.

Anonymous | 12:37 PM

oh, does anyone else love lissah (liss-ah, not a variant of lisa) as much as i do, or am i just weird?

Floaterie | 12:52 PM

For most of my pregnancy with my son, we called him Oscar and had every intention of naming him that when he came out but, it just didn't fit him. So, we went back to the list: Willem, Benjamin (after my Dad), Addison (which, sorry to say, actually means SON of Adam--my husband--and man, now I am glad we didn't--so many girls are named it!), and a couple others I couldn't remember. But, after all was said and done--Donovan won, hands down.

With my daughter, it was a little harder. My husband always wanted a girl so, I felt like the pressure was on! We had a lot of "old" names...Addie, Tallulah, Rose, Daisy (my Mums favorite flower), Ryan (my middle name)....in the end, when she was 4 days old and we were about to leave the hospital, we let Donovan decide his new sisters name.

He picked Ruby.

And it fits her personality perfectly. Feisty, independent, loving, strong minded, and she's a red head to boot! She was born bald but, we knew it was a possibility.

And I love that her big brother was so involved in the process!

Congratulations! =}

Sonja Streuber, PMP(R), SSBB | 1:00 PM

This post couldn't come at a better time! If you don't mind, I'll steal Mirabelle and Chloe from your list and put it on mine, too.

For a girl (middle name will be Charlotte):
1. Noelle
2. Miriam
3. Vivian
4. Muriel
5. Colette
6. Sarah (chosen by teh husband)
7. Angela (chosen by teh husband)

For a boy (middle name will be George or Albrecht):
1. Lukas (German spelling)
2. Everett
3. Riley
4. Thomas (chosen by teh husband)

As you can tell, TBIK and I don't quite agree on names; he likes it very traditional (also, he's focused on having a girl), I like it more ... well ... my way. :-)

Love your boy names--they sound strong and manly. Of course, since I'm more and more sure that we're having a boy (we'll find out after the amnio), I'm going to have to get that list going with more verve now ...

Unknown | 1:18 PM

Well, I´m telling you some of my favorite names so you can say that "eh.. not so much" that someone was talking about :))

There was no way my husband and family let me use any of them in my children.

For girls: Lihle, Inara.

For boys: Dante, Severian.

I love, love , love Miller!!

Anonymous | 1:57 PM

Oh my. I've been "collecting" names since I wrote my first story in 2nd grade. Some of my tops right now are:

Boy: Carson, Holden, Spencer
Girl: Genevieve, Delilah, Arden

(It was hard to narrow those down just for a comment. I can't imagine having to narrow them down for a single person. Sheesh.)

Anonymous | 2:24 PM

I did take my hubby's last name to surprise him on our 10th anniversary and also contemplated a new middle name.

I didn't do it at the time, but now we've had 3 boys and are DONE. Also, my dad has betrayed the family, so I really don't need HIS last name cluttering up my name.

When I do change my middle name (my first chance to pick a girl name) I think I'm going with Star.

Anonymous | 2:54 PM

My old co-worker had a little girl named "Chloe Simone" and I have always thought it was the most beautiful name I'd ever heard.

Anonymous | 3:27 PM

If Elijah (Zane is his midde name which I adore) had been a girl he would have been Norah. We vetoed the girl name we had picked for Caleb because it felt like his, but if I ever end up with a 3rd and it is a girl I will likely name her Norah. I also had Sascha, Selah, Arabella, Esme, Claire, and Clementine on my short list. Hubs picked both of our boy names. I would have preferred Henry, Oliver, or Owen but they were all vetoed. he was very hard headed about the boy names, but pretty much willing to let me do as I pleased with the girls.

Can't wait to find out what you name her1

Amy Linder | 4:31 PM

Gotta say, I love your rejected boy names much more than your rejected girl names. Especially Miller! That's great!

I'm not having anymore, but if I were to, I'd name a boy Carver or a girl Audrey. Feel free to use if you like. :)

Anonymous | 4:33 PM

I always loved the name Delilah but even at 22 I knew I would never use it for a baby, so I used it for a pet rat.
Then I fell in love with Wednesday (from the Adamms Family) but when it came to the crunch, I just couldn't do it. So she got Wednesday as a middle name. Even then, my MIL almost stopped talking to me.
We had so much trouble with the boys that when I was pregnant the first time my mother and I used to go walking in the cemetery looking for old, different names. In the end neither of then got a particular original name, but we had to go with what we had.

Mrs. Cline | 4:37 PM

i love this game! your girl names are fab, and i used to work with a woman who had a sweet little persephone. loved it then and now!

since husband and i are talking about "trying" in the next few months, all i can think about are babies and baby names!

for a princess, i love graycen, but she would go by gray, not grace. or addison.

for a prince, husband loves alexander, but i have a female cousin who goes by alex, so he would have to be xander. i love fenton, which is a family name on my husbands side, and call him fen. i also love findlay, fin, for short.

can't wait to hear what you, hal, and archer decide. by the way, does archer have any good suggestions? i bet he would rock at this baby naming game!!

E | 4:44 PM

I love your choices and how thoughtful you are about names.

I am not ready for kids yet, but have been doing lots of thinking as my sister is expecting. (Hell, I have been obsessed with names since I was a kid). I would love to have a houseful of kids with nature-y earthy crunchy names. My favorite girls names are Violet, Sequoia, Ariela, Rose, Sandie, Pearl and Juniper. For boys (they're not quite as earthy) I love Sebastian, River, Asher, Myles, Lincoln and Mason. My sister laughs in my face with these suggestions.. she's naming her baby Claire or Zachary. But I like those, too!

Anonymous | 5:46 PM

I love your names. I'm a wierd one when it comes to names. I have to find out what they mean too. I'm not quite as original as most of yours, but I like what we picked.

And we think about having another, but I'm 40 now, and God, I can barely keep up.

Girl: would have to be Josephine after dh's mom, I love her name and I promised her. If I had multiples and they were girls, I'd have to add Gizelle, Miranda, Annelise, Anastasia, Giada, Angelica, or Lillia.

Boys: here's where the freakiness comes in......Rockne, Charles, Nolan, Darius, Brayden, Morgan and Taylor

We usually use the middle name to honor someone in our family, so the middle name would be Donald after my Uncle and for a girl probably after my mom and aunt Caroljean (yeah, middle name is out there but oh well)

I really love Lucca. One of my son's teachers is Rex, he's a nice guy. I like that too.

I'm sure whatever her name is, she'll be beautiful inside and out.

Anonymous | 6:02 PM

what fabulous names you have on your list! i can't wait until the unveiling of baby number 2's name! As for me, I am a name fanatic and my "list" changes frequently- today I like:

Boys: Caspian (I thought I was so unique until the Narnia movie came out.. seems like you did too!), Corbin, Jude, Hugo, Silas, Levi and (guilty pleasure) Angus

Girls: Esme, Matilda, Beatrix, Astrid (but would all the kids call her 'Ass' for short?), June, Dell, & Hazel

As said before, I change my mind all the time, but after being a "Jessica (Last Initial)" all my life, I am set on uniquely naming my kids.

-Jessica

P.S. I saw you replied to a comment and said "Day" would make an awesome nickname for Daisy. I have to agree. A journalism professor I had a few years back had a daughter named Bay (just Bay) and she absolutely owned the name.

Heather | 6:13 PM

Working with a married name that no one can ever say or spell right on the first try, we went with Audrey Claire. I loved the name because thanks to Audreys like Hepburn and Tautou, the name envokes images of quirky, artistic, original and good-hearted girls. And as one of 5 million Heathers in my generation, I was gonna be damned if I named her something in the top five.
Which was why my previous #1 of Emma was shot down...I was the one with a beloved grandmother named Emma, and then Rachel on Friends went and stole it...
Also love the names Arden, Imogen (if you say it like Emmajen), Clara...
For boys we decided on Ben (Bel Folds played a hand in getting us together) but I like the name Elijah...it just sounds cool...

I cant wait to hear what you've chosen! I'm sure its amazing and original!

Anonymous | 6:27 PM

My favorite still is my first born - Kyra - pronounced with the long e sound. I also have a Brooke and a Brennan. If I get to have any influence over grandchildren, I want a Laila and a Noelle for girls - I had to drop them when compromising with my own dammit! ;-) I love all your names except for Paisley - blame that on the country singer!

Oh - and boys names - hands down, the person who posted Keiran - I love it!

dizzibloom | 7:00 PM

I love your names!! I am totally digging Salome & Paisley VERY cool, love the daisy thing. I've been in love with the name lucy for a while now - I love old names that people don't use anymore.

And I totally love Woolf as a middle name - even for a girl I think. We gave our son,Gabriel, my last name as his middle name, Sullivan. We contemplated calling him Sully for a while. My Dad never had a boy so I wanted to carry it on.

Very cool list! I can't wait to see what the winner is!

Jill | 7:31 PM

Naming is one of the very best parts of pregnancy!

Axed from our short list were: (girls) Georgia, Charlotte, India, Louisa (boys) Isaiah, Sampson, Jem, Ike.

Can't wait to hear what you picked for your daughter.

Anonymous | 8:38 PM

Wow, I'm at the end of this thing. Anyway, we had a really super hard time. We (mostly my husband) finally decided on Reed Elliott. It feels strong and classic, and Reed doesn't seem to be common. The shortlist was Finn, Atticus, Leo, and Owen (well, my shortlist). It's funny you've got the Vivienne Westwood dress up -- Vivienne was at the top of the list, as was Liv. Simple, perhaps common, but I just love it. Vivienne's still up there if we have a girl (and I hope we do).I also liked Adelaide, Clementine, Rory, Beatrice, Chloe (how can you NOT love it?), Eliza, Ingrid, Nina, Piper, and Phoebe (these last two were high up on the list).
Ummm, can you tell we wanted a girl? :)

I love Caspian! Too bad about the whole C.S. Lewis phenomenon, but I can't wait to see it. I love Daisy (more than Paisley), and Salome is beautiful. Can't wait to hear what you've decided on. Will we wait until she shows up to find out?

Auntie Ann | 9:07 PM

Love your blog...DARLING!!!

Laura | 10:19 PM

"Do what you dream Bastian"

"I can't - I have to keep my feet on the ground!"

Long-time love affair with Neverending story - considered Atreyu for a blink but didn't think kid would appreciate being named after a horse.

Other loves:
Girl: Esmee (with an accent), Edie, and my new fav Alma (after the Hurricane I was stuck in in Costa Rica)

Boy: still love Silas but popularized in Harry Potter.

Love love Caspian.

Averil | 10:46 PM

Absolutely adore your taste in names. Can't wait to see the final moniker!

My 2.5 year old's name is Dashiel. I still thrill at my own choice in names there! Ha ha!

My 6 month old daughter is Aurora and if I ever have another girl she'll be named Sonnet.

Anonymous | 11:33 PM

I love love love Caspian, what a fantastic choice! Screw Hollywood, by the time he would have been 10 no one would have remembered.

Love Luella as well, I like that you would have had a theme going.

We are currently trying to get pregnant and have been talking names. Husband is convinced first boy is to be named after his middle name, Elliott. Other boy names I like: Josef, Ethan, and Pierce. Actually, I LOVE Pierce.

Girl names? We're unsure. It's harder. I was thinking Charlotte, but it's really popular now. Right now we are on the page of Alice. Simple, classic, and we are HUGE Louis Carol fans. I also love Estelle.

NOELLE ALOUD | 11:56 PM

If our next baby is a girl, we have her name picked out. (We think.) It was going to be Westley's name if he was a girl, but it doesn't feel like "his name" to me. It feels like our little girl who hasn't been born yet. But we'll see if we still like it in three years, if that baby is a girl.

We joked that if the baby was a boy, he'd be Jefferson Starship, and if the baby was a girl, she'd be Paisley Snapdragon. They were joke names to get our extended families to stop asking, but, I...kind of fell in love with Paisley.

Boy names were HARD for us. We didn't go with: Jasper, Fletcher, Levi, Eli, Maxwell, Val, Winston, Weston, or Waldon. Axel is a family name, but my husband vetoed it. I LOVE Bastian.

Girls' names that didn't make the cut: Violet, Olivia, Pearl, Willow, Thalia, and Linea.

Anonymous | 12:29 AM

I kinda like Caspian or Luella

Anonymous | 6:29 AM

uh-how do i convince my husband that Phinnaeus isn't the name of a pig? I love it so much, want it so much for when we have a son-even as a middle name? what about Finn? sigh. I bring the name up constantly thinking that maybe if I just get him used to the word he'll grow to like it.

Brandi | 7:16 AM

I love all your name choices! You and I have similar taste.
I just had my second child, a girl, and we gave her the name Aspen. It doesn't have any real meaning, other than we just LOVED the way it sounded and it was different. Her middle name is Elise, which I thought sounded feminine. So Aspen Elise it is and she is now 4 weeks old :)
We also have a 3 year old son as well, whom we gave the simple name, Max. My dh, who has a short simple name himself, wanted our son to have such a name. So we agreed on Max.
My shortlist for girls was:
Finley (LOVED this name and I'm still mourning over this one)
Ruby
Lyric was on my list as well. Fabulous name!
Lyndon (which would have been after my bff, but we thought of it too late, and it really didn't compare to Aspen. Oh well, maybe next time)

Boy Shortlist:
Jasper Reid (that was the for sure boys name that we had picked out if Aspen had been a girl.)
Blue (I SOOOOO wanted this for a middle name)
Archer (still on the list if we ever have another boy. It would be after my father who is an avid traditional bowman. His goal in life is to preserve the traditional tools and weaponry of the world)

Anonymous | 8:15 AM

I heart Mirabelle, Rex and Lucca. We were thinking about naming our girl Honore ("honor-ray"), which means honor (duh) but is also the street in Chicago where we met.

Jennifer | 8:25 AM

I named my daughter Mila (pronounced ME-la, not MY-la, she already has to correct people at the age of almost 4) because my name is Jennifer. As I was born in the year of the Jennifers, aka 1974, I went all the way through school with at least one, but more often two, other Jennifers in my class. I love my little girl's name, especially since we could only find it in one baby name book. My husband also has a common name (Mark) so we named our son Marco. Those Italian men love to have their sons named after them....

Anonymous | 8:31 AM

the weight of the task is only equaled by the fun of it!

when we were told we were having a girl
my hubby's choice was cameron, this did nothing to conjer the image of the child we had yet to meet, so it was a big no from me.
my choice was matilda, hubby is german and it's a german name yet we are australian and it's a name deeply imbeded into our culture (waltzing matilda, unofficial national anthem).
i thought it sounded perfect with my choice of middle name .... poppet, so cute! that received a shoulder shrug from hub.

so second choice compromise would have to do, edie sunshine. edie, after his grandmother edith and sunshine cause how freekin cool saying "good morning sunshine" everyday.
(i did want to get a bit violent with all the people who said "oh, edie, like on desperate housewives...aarrgghhh)

then out came a boy...and without conflict,without discussion, without hesitation we looked at him and harper jem it was to be.

to reject such great names leaves me more curious than christmas eve... oh, the anticipation!

chel.

Anonymous | 9:30 AM

Oh YES! The Neverending Story has to be one of my favorite movies. For YEARS, I swore I'd name my first born son Atreyu but then the time came and I couldn't bring myself to do it. Mainly because I still lust after Atreyu every time I see the movie and naming my son after him didn't seem at all appropriate.

Love your list...

Ali | 9:33 AM

we are done. but if had another...
Aubrey. love love love. for a girl.

ps..how does one pronounce Salome? because i would imagine there would be much "salami" teasing...:)

Maternal Mirth | 10:35 AM

I am a simple, old-fashioned gal... I like nickname-able names.

BOY: Charles "Charlie"
GIRL: Andrea "Andie"

kittenpie | 10:49 AM

I do love Paisley, and I like many of the others, but I have to say, I think Bijou kind of sounds like a stripper name. The funny thing, too, is the associatiopns we have with different names, because Misterpie's parents have a cat named Chloe, and a book I love features a cow named Luella, so it's hard to see past those things, you know? Still, nice. I think Mirabelle was on my list until we foudn out this one's a boy.

As to the names, well, we are down to about 10 on the list now. Good thing we have a few months, though, because so far our afvourite picks are not matching up!

Anonymous | 11:30 AM

I love the girl name Isla. I think it sounds so cute and is not common. Cohen is a favorite boy name.

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah | 11:35 AM

Our girl name would have been Marin if she hadn't ended up being a twin. (also, Chloe and Paige - but both were too popular).

Anonymous | 11:37 AM

We had a hard time picking names as well, and what we ended up doing was each of us went to the same baby name site, looked through ALL the names (yes, *sigh* ALL), and then wrote down the ones we each liked. Then we compared, and the ones we agreed on made the "short list". We had Derian and Tiernan for boys and Rhiannon and Elysia for girls. We ended up with Elysia, because she just LOOKED like one.

Anonymous | 11:55 AM

We could not be more different- you are cool Cali mom, I in land locked, gulp, Nebraska- but our naming styles are freakishly the same. My sons are Asher Cobain (family name) and Caspian Rex (he is 7, so he is loving the Narnia thing) I have twin girls Daisy Lewellen (family name) and Fiona Marie. My dad calls the girls Fifi and Didi which drives my husband nuts as they sound like poodles, but I don't mind. IF we have another I'm loving Thad, Bianca, and Bettina. Love your blog!!!

pakosta | 12:02 PM

i love the name Lyric! there is someone in my daughters class with that name...my 2 daughters are:
Savannah Rose
Ava Katherine

when ava was born almost 7 years ago, i had never even heard of another ava, and it's shaME everyone is using it now!
i love the names:
Quincy, Kieran, SOphie, brett , vada and NEve for girls.

boys i am not sure about!

Anonymous | 2:10 PM

Your list is awesome, but it makes the names my husband and I concocted sound so, well, DULL. Our short lists consisted of ten names for each gender and they were as follows…

Boys: Nathanael, Oliver, Caleb, Owen, Samuel, Jacob, Daniel, Clemens, Franklin and Jack.

Girls: Charlotte, Ella, Lena, Rosemary, Anais, Violet, Josephine, Coralie, Delilah and Sophia.

In the end, we decided that it was impossible to pick a name in advance of holding our children for the first time, though.

GIRL'S GONE CHILD | 2:37 PM

Whoa, Anon 11:55! That's crazy! We would have probably gone with Caspian Rex had we had a boy. Jinks! Except I owe YOU a coke. I love all of your names, seriously. I'm not even being nice. You people have incredible taste.

Holls | 2:43 PM

i really dig paisley, that feels original if that's even possible anymore. not so sure about luella, that really makes me think of no country for old men- even though it was lou ellen or whatever. i went with lily pearl for my daughter, even though lily is crazy popular, i knew it was destined for us when i was reading a book by betty smith (not tree grows in brooklyn) and some obscure character named their daughter lily pearl. our son got oliver cain, but we call hime ozzy.
my husband wants another girl and wants to call her daisy, i like it, but not crazy about it. i think he just likes to think about daisy dukes.. on me.
then again, i'm not to cutting edge on the name game anyway, up until 9th grade i was sure i wanted twins and was going to name them david and michelle... how "cats the musical sweatshirt" is that?
anyway this might win longest comment ever award- so i'll spare you.
i could really use a spellcheck now.

Anonymous | 3:09 PM

I just named my 3rd son, Cashel (Cash) Joseph. We stole Cashel from Daniel Day Lewis-his 3rd son as well. Joseph is a family name. The runners-up were Trey, Cyrus, Silas, and Thaddeus. I was wondering how you pronounce Dashiell. I'll have to look it up. Congrats on a girl. Every woman needs a daughter, but it looks like I'll have to adopt! :) Sarah

Anonymous | 4:51 PM

If I had a daughter I'd name her Audrey after Audrey Hepburn, my hero. Her middle name would be Beth after my husband's sister who was killed a few years ago. Alas, we have boys, and no more kids in the works. I also love the name Harper for Harper Lee.

My first son is named Carter after Jimmy. I hate that it's a preppy, trendy name now. It would have been a girl's name too if we had a daughter (never found our ahead of time). My younger son is Neal, which means "blue" in my native language, Bengali. We like to say he was born blue in a red state.

Anonymous | 5:03 PM

We kept the names of our kiddos secret until they were born. Because the grandmas were so freaking judgmental about it. I mean, how could they say "that sounds like a muppet" when they are looking into the cuties eyes?

Anyway, family drama aside, names. For girls, which I have never had, I always liked Athena, Veronika, Zoe, and pretty much anything Italian. I didnt think that I liked Luella but now its really growing on me. Its my hubby's grandmas name too. Really though, that one is effing adorable.

Anonymous | 6:58 PM

LOVE PAISLY!! it was on my short list but hubby liked long italianish names like victoria and samantha. i like more original names (i already have a Kyanna(kee-on-uh)and Kordell) we could have had another K name but that wouldn't have made for good tattoos. anywho, we (i) chose jaiden. i got him to agree by writing it in script and telling him how it looked like Raider (his fav football team)
SUCKA!!

Although it's not on your list i love logan and bailey for a GIRL not a boy. you could name it atreyu or auryn still neverending story and great for a girl!! (can't wait to find out what you really pick. pop this thang out already!!)~jjlibra

Anonymous | 7:26 PM

jesus christ, bec. those are some naaaaaaaaaaaames.

Rachael | 11:27 PM

I love reading the comments on this post and reading everyone's names! I am big for naming your kid what YOU want, whether it's popular and you know a few, or have never heard of it/made it up.

Our son is Samuel Denn, named after his great x6 grandfather as well as a dear friend I had named Sam who passed away. Our girl name was (is) Abigail Edith (the Edith is after my Mom). I love that several people said they had Edith as a name! My Mom does go by Edie.

I also love the name Alexander for a boy, so many possibilities... Lex, Alex, Xander, Andy. My husband recently said he liked Fiamma for a girl. He got the idea from a pizza place here called La Fiamma. But I do love pizza, so I can't really complain there...

KaritaG | 7:51 AM

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Bijou! I am a water attorney and there's an irrigation district here called "Bijou" and I wonder if it would just be too creepy (workaholic-y) if I named a girl that...

Mom101 | 7:51 AM

Oh are you brave to put your options out there for all the world to (critique) see.

I'm not offering any thoughts because whatever you name him or her, it will be the most perfect name.

And knowing me I'd be like, ewwww that sucks! And that's the one you'd choose.

Mom101 | 7:53 AM

And now...as I'm catching up on yoru posts in reverse chronological order,
I can safely say don't go with Bastian.

A GIRL!

huge huge congrats. Mazel tov!

Anonymous | 8:38 AM

My boss's grandbabies are named Prayer and Noble. They're these gorgeous multiracial (Black, Irish, Native American) chubby toddlers. I think they're great names.

The problem with me is that I love all names. Well, not all - Elbert is not that great, is it? - but most. I'm a name junkie. I think I'm going to have to get lots of goldfish in my old age just so I can use up all my names.

KimC | 9:33 AM

Okay, so I loved your choices, so I will share a our daughter's name, and a few others that I know from my group of (slightly) eclectic friends:

Aya Lotus (my daughter, Aya means beautiful in Japanese, and Lotus is a flower, so we named her Beautiful Flower. It fits, if I say so myself)

Poppy Ilise (friend's daughter. I am not too sure I spelled the Ilise right, I want to say it is spelled differently than normal)

Stella Rose (Fits her, and how awesome is it to yell "Stella" across the playground?)

That's pretty much all of the "cool" names, the rest are running around with Dakota and Taylor- which are nice but very very common and popular right now.

gwendomama | 12:49 PM

wow, i have to say this is the FIRST time i have seen my #1 favorite (and overruled) name.
i am a music teacher, wanted to name my little guy Lyric.
our first child is named after a scott joplin song.
everyone begged me not to name a boy Lyric, which didn't matter so much except 'everyone' included 'my husband'.
we went with Ez.

Anonymous | 1:29 PM

I LOVE Paisley if it's a girl, and Caspian if it's a boy! Those names really go well with Archer!

Suzanne | 5:47 PM

I nominate "Hunter" for Archer's brother. ;^) I used to fantasize about having a little girl (had a boy, instead) and naming her Branwen Kelleen. Don't even remember where I came up with that!

Anonymous | 7:08 PM

I'm thinking Sabine, or Luisa. LOVE your rejected names; hate how the best have become popular right when you're ready to have your girl (Chloe comes to mind, and sophia, and isabelle.) Archer and Sabine sounds nice. Dying to know what you've decided!!

I fought hard for Vivienne, but my husband insisted Vivianna was better; I think the latter is too much name for a small girl. She became Josephine, and I love it. Her brother, for the record, is Vincent. He was named years and years ago, WAY before conception, simply because the most handsome man I've ever known was a Vincent. Best wishes to you and SHE!!

Anonymous | 7:12 PM

One more, because I loved it for a girl and the hubz nixed it: Tristan.

Anonymous | 9:46 PM

Indigo was my fake name in college, the one I gave to all the boys who I didn't really want to talk to but who I wanted to have buy me beers. When your name is Indigo, people buy you beer left and right.

Anonymous | 9:08 PM

I'm grinning quietly to myself over your boys' names. My son is Sebastien Miller (Bastien or Baz/Bazzy). :-)

We once wanted to use the name Kaos (like Chaos) Xavier for a boy. We gave that up pretty quickly.

My sister wanted to name her daughter Tallulah. For a while, she was mad that she didn't because she insisted my niece (Anya Sinead) looked like a Tallulah. At 6, she has grown into her name and is very much an Anya.

-Hyphen

Anonymous | 11:32 AM

We have very similar taste in names. Unfortunately, my hubby is much more conservative when it comes to names.

Luckily, we had a girl, and he seemed much more open to more unusual names.

I liked your thinking regarding Archer/Luella as both being warriors per se. Did you know that Caden means "little warrior"? I love it for a girl. Archer and Caden would be cute. Also, Cadence has that Lyric-like music meaning. Another name similar to what you like - Amethyst. My pilates instructor is named this and I love it.

Anyway, I know the name you've picked is perfect. Can't wait to hear it.

Jenn/hippygoth | 3:18 PM

Been reading your blog on Babble for a while, and lurk-lurk-lurking. Must de-lurk for the baby name conversation.

My boy front-runner was Torrin, a diminutive form of Thor - I thought it was so cool, and I'm a quarter Swedish so it was kind of appropriate, but that got vetoed big time.

My girl name was a longstanding favorite (10 years) and I could have talked my husband into it...Brenna. However, when we mentioned it to the in-laws, my mother-in-law's thick Massachusetts came into play. "Brenner?" she said. "I guess that's a cute name." Her pronunciation killed it. I realized that all of our families have very thick Massachusetts accents, and I didn't want our kid's name to rhyme with "dinner."

My daughter's name is Charlotte.

Bekka Ross Russell | 7:17 PM

I secretly think I might conceivably know your baby name, but I probably don't, and if I do, I won't say it anyway, because if I'm right, it's pretty and you should use it, and nothing ruins a name like having it guessed in public. That said, I can't WAIT for you to pop the munchkin out so we all get our voyeuristic curiosity satisfied. Rereading Rockabye again tonight - you're pretty incredible.
-Bekka

Andi | 7:03 AM

I have one son. Jack. Just like every other little boy on the playground, but I don't care, he is a Jack through & through. His full name is Jackson Mercer.

I'm due in December & if we have a girl her name will be Annie. Not sure if it will be just Annie or Annabele. She'll be Annabel Leigh, Annie Corbitt, or Annabel Ursula.

A boy will be Felix. Probably Felix Corbitt.

Jack's middle name is the street we lived on when he was born & with this one we have the streets Corbitt & Ursula to go with if we follow the same tradition.

We also like Harriet, Audry & Grace for girls & my husband loves Sequoia.

Anonymous | 8:30 AM
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lexington | 9:02 PM

Another lurker :)

And even though I'm nowhere NEAR having kids, my favorite right now for a girl is Silence Loud. I found it in a book, and I am absolutely determined to inflict it on my daughter someday. I love it.

Megg | 9:18 PM

We didn't know the sex of our child until she came screaming out of my vagina, but our baby shower had our picked named printed everywhere. We were DEAD SET on the following:

Boy: Wolfgang Oliver (his initals would have been W.O.W)

Girl: Luka Lorraine

We ended up with Gia Lorraine which is odd. She didnt look like a Luka at all and out of nowhere her dad decided on Gia. I said "NO!" until he added to it that I could call her GiGi.....which i melted with.

Anonymous | 4:46 AM

ooo, I love this baby name stuff too. So much so I'm commenting for the first time. We had one and only name. Evie. Loved it from the get go. I'm a single parent now but if I ever I am blessed with another child (and it will be a girl - we only seem to make girls in my family), it'll be Clem(entine). Best of luck with the rest of your pregnancy. i'm loving your blog from way over in the southern hemishpere...

Anonymous | 11:32 AM

goodness, i cant remember if i left a comment on this blog or someone elses for baby names! haha. i read this thing all the time, so i was excited to hear youre having another baby! hmm...as for baby names...

i really love luella for a girl and caspian for a boy. i also love adelyn (add-a-lynn) for a girl and greyley for a little boy. :)

good luck with everything!!

Anonymous | 7:41 PM

I just wanted to say, you have amazing taste in baby names :) Paisley was one of the top 3 for our daughters name, along with Simone. We ended up naming her Soleil Monroe. Because well, it was Punky's name and you can't get much cooler than Punky Brewster and because I loved that it was kinda hippie in a french chic sorta way :) I'm pregnant again and due in Feb. If this one is a girl we will be naming her Cielle (french for Sky) and If it's a boy we will be naming him Zephyr Sage. Zephyr is one of my all time fav's and NO ONE can talk me out of it! LOL. I love all of your names though. Great taste!

Anonymous | 7:41 AM

We fought over the middle name for ages. We have a hyphenated last name (both DH and I), but we just wanted the baby to have my maiden name as a middle name (so like our last name, but no hyphen). We were set on Bennett Emile, until we actually had the sonogram and found out it was a boy. Then suddenly, DH went crazy on me and for the next 14 weeks, stated that there would be no extra middle name. After fighting for 14 weeks, I said "you can pick the middle name, whatever...as long as he has a second middle name. We ended up with Bennett Avery. And the day the baby came, my husband said, Do you want to change it back to Bennett Emile? NO INDECISIVE JERK, I've been calling my baby Bennett Avery for the last 2 wks!!!

Of course, our baby came out so dark (he's lightened up a ton now; he's half Mexican), when I saw him I said, "Maybe we should name him Benicio instead." I'm glad I stuck with Bennett

Name my DH vetoed which I loved: Lochlan

Girl name: Ainsley Eliana.

My big beef on names is that the name has to be spelling correctly, not creatively! My first name is Allyssa, and its been hell my whole life!

Unknown | 9:04 PM

My adult daughters names are Tara, Julie (Now calling herself Julia...which is NOT her name) and Erin....My grand children are Jessica, Justin, Evan and Auguste. My parents were so certain they would have a boy that they did not plan a girls name. My parents, Joe and Dorothy, named me Joann Dorothy.

Anonymous | 12:36 PM

We had no idea what we were expecting and also decided to keep names a secret. Until a week before I had my son his name would be Ruben and if he would be a girl Katrina. Then I drove home from work and I hated them. I went over the lists again and we named him Enzo. No middle name as they are a waste. :) Only good for filling out forms.
I like your choices. Different but not crazy.

Karen Bodkin | 2:50 PM

If Thomas had been a girl, he would have been Madeline Jane after our grandmothers...but I think Madeline is getting too popular. :)

Anonymous | 8:38 PM

My first son is Elijah Harrison, the Harrison after Beatle George who died when I was preggers with Eli. If it were up to me his name would have been Basil. If he were a girl, he would have been Olivia Parker--I guess we dodged the Olivia popularity bullet.

My second son is Gideon Hendrix. I wanted his first name to be Indigo or Diego, but apparently husbands get a say in this naming business. If he were a girl, I think I would have went with Ione or Nina.

My third son is Lukas Hawkeye (after the Marvel character, not the M*A*S*H guy). I totally agreed on Hawkeye as a middle name years before I conceived this one (he's now 2 months old), when I was drunk on sake. If he was a girl I would have named him Ramona Holiday Page (after Billie H. and Jimmy Page, and, of course the Ramones). So rockin' and still feminine...but alas, I will never get to use it.

Anonymous | 9:22 AM

Ever since I learned that my husband's great grandmother's name was Hazel Belle, I've wanted to have a child just to name her that!

Heza Hekele | 12:19 AM

I have had a running name list since I was a child! Even though I have only had one child and there are no more in the plans...I still have a running, ever edited, name list. Names are like poetry...they are fun!

Anonymous | 10:33 AM

love luella

Anonymous | 8:49 PM

My name is Louisiana. I was surprised to see someone else posted their little girl was named that. Your choices of names are very interesting. Bastian is a great name.
Nice to see people thinking outside of the box. Just a warning though, as a child the kid will hate having a unique name. As an adult, however, they will totally love it :)
(future baby names.. Alaska Marie Rene, Atlanta Maeve, Cooper Washington, Darrin Texas)

Maria Melee | 5:29 PM

Reading through ollllder entries. Your baby names are gorgeous. I had a shitload of girl names in mind (we're having a boy, oops.)

Charlotte (Lola)
Penelope (Penny)
Ainesley
Sadie
Josephine

My son's name is Simon and I really want something that goes well with it.

Gideon is one of my favorite but my husband isn't big on it. He hates Jasper as well, which is another one of my favorite boy's names.

(I think Caspian is gorgeous, btw.)

Right now I'm thinking about Oliver and Elliot, but in the wishwashy insanity of hormones I keep changing my mind. Constantly.

Simon didn't have a name until he was pushing four days old, but I kind of want a couple of really top top top contenders before I'm in the throes of post-partum looniness.

I really like Max, too. But I don't like just Max. And I'm not huge on Maxwell.

Anonymous | 12:43 PM

Im pregnant now, and i LOVE the names Honor, Stella, Elliotte, Ivy and Harper for a girl.

For boys, i love Dexter, Franklin, Willow, and Henry. (Henry is my husbands best mans last name!)

Anonymous | 12:27 AM

Love this name game!! My first was a boy, Kodi James and my husband had that name picked out years before so that was easy. However, choosing a name for our 2nd was so hard!! I like lots of names but I also wanted something a little unique. When she was born I still didnt know and our son liked Tessa Rose so we went with that. Then she got sick. Well her name wasnt complete and it suddenly hit me that she was actually Indigo Tessa Rose (Indi) and despite an enormous amount of grief from others (people are sooooo mean sometimes) I added to it. Okay she is still Tessa to some but to most she is our Indi girl and I am proud that I didn't cave to others opinions and my daughter has got a special name, with a special story. Indigo is not just a colour - it means strong willed and sensitive. Tessa is Asset spelt the other way (cause she is our little asset!!) and Rose is my great grandmothers name. Perfect!

Anonymous | 2:04 PM

Paisley & Gideon are both on my list as well.

Liesal | 6:12 AM

I don't have kids, nor am I pregnant, nor do plan on becoming pregnant in the immediate future, but I already feel a lot of pressure to come up with the perfect name for my children. I'm pretty sure I'm making this pressure up, but I still feel it. I feel the need to be just as creative as my mom. She came up with Liesal, Rory (boy-Don't understand why parents name their girls Rory/i since it means red-headed king), Brielle (girl), and Calum (boy). Just how can I live up to those names?!

My goal is to find names for my children that have some meaning to my husband and me and that is unique. It's proving difficult. I'm glad I have at least a year to figure this all out.

Caitlin | 12:39 PM

my fiance and i are years away from having kids (we think), but already have a little list going =)

girls: eisley, elby, esme
boys: elijah, judah

the last name is DICK, which has made us eliminate a ton of names we would otherwise love =/

Unknown | 6:12 PM

okay, commenting a million years later, but as a tabatha, i love it. so if you have a third and it's a girl, i highly suggest it :)

Desperation | 9:19 PM

My name is Desperation. My parents named me that because they were desperate for a baby boy and got two girls in a row. Why name a baby such a "weird and sad" name? They were desperate. My parents thought that if they sacrificed my name to how desperate they were, then maybe they would get a baby boy. They were right, and wrong. My parents adopted my little brother, who was named Solution. Such a stupid name for what they wanted most! So he was the solution to their desperation. Big deal. My older sister did not get off easily either, she was named Trial. That meant that my sister was a practice trial for having a kid, and, would soon have more trials that might result better.
So I am Desperation T. Chaise, my older sister's name is Trial F. Chaise, and my little brothers name is Solution A. Lasst. My mom's name was Mary W. Lasst, and my father's name was Cody B. Chaise. At least my parents' names are decent. Those are the names of my sad family.