Name Game

I just read a post from a friend about how they came up with their kids names. I'm still not officially blogging yet, but I couldn't resist writing this post. Just as a note, we are not early namers. We're more of packing up walking out of the hospital saying "what should we write on the birth certificate?" namers. Quinn will not even discuss names before the baby is born - which I think is the main reason for the delay. The stress of the hospital and post delivery issues do not contribute to a good environment for these important life long decisions. Surpisingly, I'm actually quite happy with what we've come up with!
Abby Brenae - I was one of thousands of parents that thought this was a unique, not over used name. I hadn't heard it on TV, I didn't know any other Abbys (besides Dear Abby) and in fact I worried that it was a little too unusual. Fast forward five years later and there are Abbys everywhere. She if often questioned if it is short for Abigail..........NO! I knew I would never call her Abigail so it's just Abby. Brenae is one of Quinn's concoctions. He likes to take a name and tweek it a bit. It's like Renae with a "B". Fun Fact: if she ever marries anyone with a "Y" last name, her initials will spell ABBY!
Bridget Kate - This one I'm not quite sure about. I honestly don't remember where we came up with Bridget (like we sometimes wonder where she came from too!). I think when I was little my mom told me that if my brother had been a girl, his name would've been Bridget. I guess it's just stuck with me since then. It's also Irish which neither of us are, but the name Quinn is. I've always loved the name Kate but felt it didn't quite work alone with our last name, but sounded good as a middle with Bridget.
Ava Simone - Most dramatic (& tramatic) experience of all. First of all, I had heard the name Ava here and there and really liked it, but I was afraid that it was going to be too popular so it sort of fell to the bottom of the list. So, were in the hospital eliminating names based on all sorts of factors. What are we left with? Jetta! Yes, we actually named Ava "Jetta" at first. We came home and I immediately knew that it was all wrong. I could not even bring myself to call her Jetta. That was on a Saturday. We spent the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday going over names again and decided that she needed to be Ava - whether it was too popular or not. I went back to the hospital Monday morning and changed the birth certificate to Ava. Simone was just one of those names that I liked, but was not daring enough to use it for a first name.
Iris Elizabeth - By far the easiest of all. I had seen Iris in a baby name book and jotted it down to consider. I had twenty to thirty of these "considerations" so Iris was just tossed into the mix. The weird thing is how it kept coming up. 1. while shopping in St. George, I heard a mother call her daughter Iris. 2. after returning home from St. George, for two days in a row, Iris was an answer to a crossword puzzle clue. 3. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had just named their baby Suri. Quinn really liked that name, but I knew we couldn't use that right after they just did. I told him that my mom used to work with someone named Siri. When I asked my mom how it was spelled she told me and Quinn just stopped and said "guess what siri is spelled backwards?" Ta Da - Iris. It still wasn't totally decided upon before she was born, but I was pretty sure that's what I wanted. Elizabeth is just one of those classic names that sounded pretty with Iris. I guess it's sort of a family name too (whose family doesn't have an Elizabeth somewhere in the line?), but that wasn't really the motivation.

I'm not sure what I would name a boy if I ever had one. I've always love the name Taylor, but I think it's gone too much to the girls side and I'd have to have a definite "boys" name considering he'd have 4 sisters. Truthfully, as hard of a time as we've had coming up with names for our girls, I think boy names would be even harder. We like to joke that we'd name a son Dollar - get it? Ha Ha - Dollar Beal!