Baby Namin'

We decided on Liam's name fairly shortly after we found out he was a boy. From there on out, I could not call him by name and not feel awkward. Very strange - we knew that was "the" name for us, and we weren't about to change it, but I still just couldn't get it to roll off the tongue until he arrived. I'd kinda stumble on it when it was on its way out.

Same thing this time. Baby has a name, but I feel really weird saying it out loud. Despite the awkwardness, I do enjoy getting Liam to say it (he's pretty close, but if he were to say it to someone, they'd just think he's talking gibberish). We better be careful, though, because one day he may just blab it out clearly, unprompted.

I'm not worried - I LOVE the name we have, and Liam's name became natural as soon as he was born. Maybe it has to do with the fact that anyone knowing the name is taboo...if no one else can know it, it is forbidden to be spoken out loud.

I love it this way. Even though I can't wait to tell the world our little girl's name, I enjoy secrecy. In fact, as an expert pregnancy stalker, I love being surprised by the sex and/or name of others' babies at birth. I love the suspense - the more surprises there are, the more I'm checking status updates constantly when I know they're off to have the baby. For us, it makes the moment so much more fun when we can see the looks on our families' faces (for better or for worse) when we finally relieve them of the suspense.

I think it might have taken them a few moments to get used to "Liam."

I've said a few times that we were at a loss as to what to name a boy. It's funny because I think if it were the other way around, and we had the "perfect" boy's name but no leads on a girl's name, I might have been secretly rooting for a boy. You don't realize how important getting it "just right" is until the responsibility is bestowed upon you.

I'd had a cache of names in my own head prior to getting pregnant that I thought I would love to choose from. When it actually came down to it, though, some of the names I thought I loved ended up just not calling out to me. Of note: Elijah, Gavin, Simon, Maddox.

We explored "L" names. If we were to have a third, we wouldn't have wanted to continue that tradition, but for two, it's really cute. I think Logan was always kind of a fallback for both of us. That would have been a top contender had it been a boy. I had always thought Levi or Lance would be great choices, but in the end, though I really like the names, once again they're not "it."

My personal top choice, which would have been as close as you could come to finding the perfect name, would have been Mason. However, there are two of us involved in this thing, and Andy wasn't in agreement with me. He was also not on board with some of my other top picks, like Dylan or Damien.

Avery was originally a boy's name, and I explored this one in my own head. However, I just couldn't get past the fact that it is such a popular girl's name right now. I wasn't sure if that would lead to teasing down the road.

As for middle names, Everett seemed to pair well with several of the names we had come up with. Three-syllable middle names tend to do make for a good flow. I always liked Grant for a middle name as well, and that was one of the contenders when we were naming Liam. In the end, we wanted to go with something that had a little more impact.

Part of me is disappointed that we didn't take baby-naming more seriously before we found out the sex. I did want to have both names ready to go just because naming babies is fun, but I could never motivate myself to sit down and think about it. When I did, I would just get discouraged. Andy was more of the mindset that he didn't need to think about it until we knew the sex.

It's all a moot point now. Hopefully the interpretation of the ultrasound was right, otherwise I just showed you our entire hand!