It's very bizarre to name a child. To know that this baby will be expected to carry this name around with her for the rest of her life (unless during a streak of independence she goes down and changes it to something like Peace Love Freedom...which I wouldn't totally object to).
Choosing a name has been an interesting adventure for us. First of all, I'm not super picky. Which seems like it would make things easier, but it doesn't. Second of all, Kristin has taught school for 15 years and has known a lot of kids. With a lot of names. Which means she has formed a lot of opinions. She is also expert #1 on coming up with terrible nicknames that other kids might find to call our child. "How about Ella?" (without skipping a beat) "Oh, so you want our daughter to have terrible self esteem when her classmates take to calling her Ella the elephant?!?" Then there's the whole trying to figure out whether a "different" name is okay. And what about spelling?...would it be okay for her to chronically have her name mispronounced and/or misspelled? And what will the name say about her when she is a baby? A 3 year old? Fifteen? Thirty? I have to remind myself that whatever her name is will just become her...but it's still weird.
After lots of discussions and lists, though, I think we've finally narrowed it down to three "acceptable" names (which we aren't going to share at this point :)). Kristin has had students with some; all have been tried out at the ages of newborn, 3, 15, and 30 with varied success; some have obvious nicknames; and some may be chronically misspelled or mispronounced by teachers or baristas. But it's a list. A list of names we can both agree on. A list of names that hopefully will give us sufficient options when we finally meet our little girl and give her a name she will likely carry with her long after Kristin and I are both gone.
PS - My vote has always been Blueberry, but for some reason Kristin continually vetoes it. :)
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