Names

Thinking of the gender and having the big ultrasound in sight has made me start thinking of names more than ever. Matt and I have been talking about names for years, but have started seriously considering them the past couple of weeks. We have a boy's name picked out, but I'm not going to share it yet. I will right away if we find out we're having a boy. :-) No reason to start confusing people by announcing a bunch of names. If you really want to know I can email or PM you, it's not like it's a huge secret or anything. I just don't feel like announcing a name that might not be used.

Girl names, on the other hand, are very, very hard for us! I would like to have one settled on before we find out the gender so that if it is a girl we'll have a name right away, but I'm beginning to think that if it's a girl we may not have a firm decision until closer to the birth! Also, I'm trying not to get too "into" figuring out a name since we may not even have to worry about it if we have a boy. I'm a huge planner and I like to have everything figured out ahead of time, so it's hard to think that we won't have a name for each gender picked out before the ultrasound like I had always thought we would. I know, I know, it doesn't really matter, there's plenty of time, but that's just the way I am!

I've decided to post a list of girl names that we're considering so that you can vote (the button to the list is on the sidebar...it says Baby Names). It looks like we won't be adding to the list, but we just might! I've already put the list on my message board signature for the baby name message board I've been visiting and a friend of mine who has been helping me out with names said there's already a lot of votes. So I figure it can't hurt to have people who are actually close to me give their opinion! I'll never know if you like the names or not, so it won't hurt my feelings. I'd also love to hear your positive opinions about any of the names that you particularly like. :-) And if you have any suggestions, feel free to share, but don't be hurt if they aren't added to the list! Matt is very picky about names (he already has a favorite on this list and doesn't feel the need to even consider any other names...ugg! frustrating man!) so that is the reason this list isn't any bigger. lol Maybe that's a good thing because there's already a lot of names on there!

I'll probably check the votes this weekend. I want to involve my family in the baby name process, so I hope we can get together with them on Saturday to discuss it. Maybe their opinions and the votes will make a difference, maybe not, who knows! But I want my family to like the names we have picked out since we see them so much. My mom was going to name me Sarah or Bethany, but her parents hated both names and so she decided to make them happy and not use either. Boy am I glad!! I like my name a lot better than those (they are pretty, I just don't think they fit me at all). Of course, I guess if I had ended up as Sarah or Bethany I'd be SO glad I wasn't named Andrea instead. ;-)

Anyway, I love looking at names and seeing what other women have picked out, so I'm excited to share this with y'all! I like unique names, but not TOO out there. I would prefer to never meet another girl the same age as my daughter with the same name. However, Matt likes more common names. As a matter of fact, Isabella is his #1 favorite, but it's too popular for my tastes. I love seeing the SS.A's list of names and it's too bad that they won't publish 2008's names until May because I'm curious to see how much the names we're considering have risen/fallen in rank.