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The Name Game

We haven't found a name for you yet. Granted, it will be a lot easier once we've learned whether you will be a girl or a boy. With Kayla, we had a list of final choices for either gender, and with Josh it was a little easier because he got the name that his sister didn't get. A lot of names have been bounced around, but here are a few of my thoughts. I suggested Chloe if you are a girl. It's short, and doesn't seem so common. I've learned, though, that a lot can happen to a name in, say, ten years. When we picked the name Kayla for your older sister, I had never actually heard of it before. Now it's not so commonplace, but every once in a while I do run into other Kaylas, and most of them are children (hah! It just shows that we started a trend). At least we didn't pick names like Jennifer or Hailey (I swear that right now there are about a 100 girls named Hailey attending the Shepherd Public Schools, and four of them live right here in our neighborhood). When I suggested the name, I explained to your mom that there was a main character from the show "24" named Chloe. She was a smart computer analyst. Someday when you are older, I might be able to explain to you what "24" is all about. It's possible that after you are born they will start making movies based on the show, so maybe I'll just take you to see one of them. I like names that are either short or can be shortened. "Josh," for example, is a short version of "Joshua." This allows me to call your brother by a more informal name most of the time, but then when he gets into trouble I will use his full name. I always thought that "Kayla" could be shortened to "Kay," but I haven't heard too many people do it. Her name is already pretty short, so I guess that would qualify as more of a nickname. I was watching a movie on Netflix called "Darkness Falls" (a horrible movie, by the way) which had a main character named "Kyle." I heard the name, and thought "that would be a great name for a boy." But, I slowly discounted it because I began to realize that whenever movies feature characters named Kyle, they are usually: Cursed with mutant or supernatural powers; Alone and misunderstood; Have mad scientist fathers who suddenly turn up missing Still, it does have the virtue of being both (1) short; and (2) rarely used. Although I think this year your sister has a teacher at school with the first name Kyle. "Luke" would also be an interesting choice, but I'm pretty sure your mom would veto it. Whether you are a girl or a boy, you will eventually learn that one of the main characters from the coolest series of science fiction movies ever is named Luke Skywalker. Well, he was actually only in the first three movies (which, as it turns out, are really the last three in the series) but when I was growing up he was the ultimate science fiction hero. I've known a couple of people named Luke. For example, there is a computer technician who responses to our technical support questions at work, for example. One thing that happens when we are going through possible names is that we will exclude certain ones based on kids we've known or names that have already been used in the family.

Baby on Board
View as: | Blog Post | Doc | Activity Feed | For example, there are already two Joseph Morgans. Bill, Earl, Russell, and Ruth are also already taken, as are David and Doug. There actually is another Jon (my cousin's son, and for a while there I was getting his photo tags on Facebook), and a Hannah too. Our friends, the Hollidays, picked the name Noah and Athena for their youngest two; until I had met them I hadn't met anybody named Athena, and only a couple of people named Noah. These are cool names, but we can't use them. After I started to think about names for you, it suddenly dawned on me that "Josh" and "Kayla" are sequential if you listed them alphabetically. If we stayed with this pattern your name would need to start with either an "I," or an "L." This has lead me to the name "Isaac" as a possibility. It's short, and associated with a lot of smart or famous people (Isaac Asimov, for example), I don't think there is anybody in our family named Isaac, and it isn't that commonly used. I can only think of one person who named their son Isaac, and I only know about it because we're friends on Facebook (we graduated from High School together). Your mom has also mentioned "Isabella" if you are a a girl. I think its short (and can be shortened to "Bella," which is the name of the main character from "Twilight," a book series which will have ended its run of movies just before you are born) and pretty. The only downside is that people might think that you are named after our county. I'm not too worried about finding name, because I know that eventually it will come to us. One thing that I've never encountered in my life is someone who doesn't have a name at all. and I'm sure that you won't be the first.