16 April 2009

What's in a name?

It's 3:30 in the morning, baby boy is playing wallyball with my insides, and I am wide awake with too much on my mind. I have always heard that third trimester pregnancy insomnia exists to prepare a mom for the sleepless nights that are ahead with a newborn. But seriously? What a cruel form of preparation.

I think that baby woke me up on this early morning because he is wondering, like many inquiring minds, when he will know his name. Now, I'm not a fan of "officially" naming a child in utero, calling the embryo and my belly by his name before he is born and whatnot, but this time around when it feels like we should really be settling in on one, we're not quite there yet.

Naming a child is a bit of a daunting task. A 40-week gestation is difficult enough without slapping on the added burden of choosing the perfect name, not to mention being responsible to make sure the first name flows with the last, forseeing what bad nicknames may be in the future, and wondering if the child will someday file an official name change with the government due to what he deems was a very poor choice made by his parents. (I'm exaggerating a bit here, I know that it's not THAT big of a deal, people)

For Christmas, as kind of a joke, Alisa gave me a book titled, 50,001 Best Baby Names, which, it turns out, I was actually pretty excited to receive. After reading through almost the entire thing, here are the official numbers:

50,000 to begin
-25,000 : out because they are suited for the female gender (but we sure loved some of them)
-100-200(ish) : that although we might like, are out simply due to their association with an annoying student that has come through Jeff's classroom over the past years. (For you people with non-teacher spouses, this number is much smaller and limited to annoying co-workers, roommates and acquaintances)
-50-100(ish) : out because they have already been selected by close friends or family members (not that we're against naming our children after people we like, or carrying on family names; this mostly includes cousins, etc. that are currently alive and don't want their name poached simply because we like it too)
-24,696 : out because they sound bad with Fuller, are too popular, or are just plain ridiculous.

Okay, so what do your awesome math skills tell you is left over after that complicated equation?

That would be FOUR(ish) possible names. And even a couple of those are still questionable.

I had no idea I was this picky. The psychology of why we like/hate certain names is too complicated to delve into, and, frankly, I don't really understand it, so I'll refrain from analyzing it here.

So we just can't decide. Well, I should say I can't decide--Jeff has somewhat of a more decisive opinion this time around. I'm the one dragging this whole process down.

Therefore, when the question is posed, "what are you going to name the baby?", the answer really is we don't know. It's not that we're keeping it a secret, we just don't know. (And in case you're wondering, Swampfire has remained on the short list, at Owen's insistence)

For now, Baby Boy Fuller might just be the name he comes home with (hmmm, that has a simple, organic quality to it. It can be changed to Boy Fuller, Teen Fuller, and Man Fuller as he grows up. Like calling a thing what it is--a spade is a spade is a spade).

11 comments:

Jen I said...

Left with only FOUR names? Wow, that is small. But hey, I wasn't named for a whole MONTH after I was born - and then all they could come up with was Jennie? Like all forms of Jennifer weren't the most popular name that year? They just called me baby. It worked.

Jaclyn said...

I thought about your blog posts everyday as I was dealing with nausea. I remembered what you wrote about something sounding so good and then once you ate it, it was disgusting. But yet I had to eat it to at least make the nausea go away for 5 min. And soup did taste pretty good to me, I made LARGE quantities of home made chicken noodle soup and would get quite offended when other family members (such as my 2 yr olds) had the nerve to eat my precious food.

Good luck with the name selection. You did good by the first two so I know this one will be something great as well. Although we're not as far along as you I have NO idea what we will name it. No pressure but I've heard that they won't let you leave the hospital these days without a name! Maybe these late nights you're pulling will be good for something aside from sleepless night practice.

Lizzy said...

Naming a kid really is hard. I spent the better portion of last night with a baby naming book in my lap. If we're having a girl, I think we've got one we love. If we're having a boy, we're screwed. Naming a boy is a lot harder than naming a girl, if you ask me. Good luck!

David and Jana said...

I have to say that we had a horrible time with our last boy in naming him. It actually turned out to be a huge ordeal...so GOOD LUCK in naming him!

jefferies said...

I think you should do Henry.

Trisha said...

I am one of those weird people that had kids names picked out long before I even had kids. Good luck on naming him and thanks for making me laugh today.

HAMISH AND ELLEN said...

Good post. I say you'll know what name fits after you meet the little guy. :)

stacie said...

I'm sure you'll find the perfect name...its one of the hardest things to come up with- a name you both can agree on! good luck!

Ilene said...

The problem of having another baby of the same gender is that you already picked the name(s) you liked the most so it gets difficult to pick a second or third option. It took us forever to settle on Thomas. I'm already trying to figure out what I will name our next baby (I'm not pregnant, just planning ahead). Baby Girl or Baby Boy is sounding good to me.

Lis said...

He'll end up with something completely random from Em anyway, so we might as well just name him baby and let the nicknames flow!

Mel D said...

I also have a fat baby naming book that I went through...well, half of it... and came out still not knowing at all what little one's name is. I guess at least I have a little more time? I have a short list of ones I like but a reason why I don't want to use the name to go along with each one. The hunt continues...