Naming our babies has to be one of the most stressful parts of pregnancy. Our first time around we were in the mindset that we needed to make a decision before they arrived and we quickly settled on Henri Frances if Edith was to be a boy. As for a girl we had three names and stressed about deciding on which we would use until 36 weeks when we finally decided to stop stressing and wait to meet our baby; I also was convinced Edith would be a boy and that we wouldn’t use any of the names anyway. Well Edith was born and we immediately knew she would be Edith no question about it and the other two names were never considered again (in case you’re curious the other names were Evelyn and Everly.)
Edith Mary
Enter baby #2 and we were back at square one. We were over our two girls names we didn’t use and the playgroups were saturated with Henry/Henri’s so that name was out for us. So what did we do? We spent 9 months creating lists of names that were remote possibilities. We would each create a list, exchange the list and cross of any that we disliked and then merge or lists together. We then would return to the list ever few weeks to cross off and add names. We ultimately decided just to wait to meet our baby. I can’t remember what names made our list but I’ll tell you one that didn’t – Alder Grey. Yeah that’s right all that list making and we decided on a name that wasn’t even on our list. Actually a name that 18 months earlier Neil had given me a hard ‘NO’ on when I said that would be a nice name and then he of all people was the one to say “what about Alder?”
Alder Grey
Now onto baby #3. We once again were back at square one. We didn’t have any baby names that we were really into or holding on to from previous pregnancies (except for a few that were on my list only – I’ll share below). Our list this last time seemed to be miles long made up of any name that sparked even the slightest interest. We had a few that stood out a bit more than others – like Ingrid – but ultimately there were not many that really spoke to us. Again we decided to wait to meet baby and after she arrived and we spent time with her we knew Ingrid Rose was the perfect name for her.
Ingrid Rose
Okay on to the real reason you are here all those names that made our list that we didn’t use. Okay maybe not all because who has time for that (if you do want to know message me) but here are our top 10….or rather my top 10 because at least two of these names are ones that made my individual list ever baby and Neil vetoed every time.
- Olive
- Wilder
- Astrid
- Hollis
- Winnifred/Winnie
- Basil – makes my list every time and Neil uses his veto every time.
- Laurel
- Cecil
- Stella – another that has been on the list every time and Neil again uses his power of the veto. Fun fact Stella and Basil is the names of my great-great maternal grandmother and her brother.
- Frances
As you can see we go for names that are older sounding, botanical and Scandinavian. As I write this I realize that that is exactly what we did as well – Edith (older), Alder (botanical) and Ingrid (Scandinavian).
What names made your list that you won’t be using? What name(s) did your partner veto? I could write an entire post of the names that Neil vetoed (there were a ton). Ultimately I’m happy with all the names we picked and who knows maybe a few will end up being used for the future four pawed friends we plan to adopt.
I love baby name conversations, and I LOVE finding out how couples came to name their littles. Of course I’m biased with you, since we both named our eldest Edith. 🙂 I was pulling for Beatrice with #2, but it never sat that well for Eric, and now I can’t even imagine our 2 year old as anything but Maxine!
I do too! It’s so interesting to see what names people are drawn to and why they chose them. If Alder was a girl I think we might have gone with Beatrix – how funny would that have been if both had similar second baby names as well?
Ah our first boy name was easy and when we found out we were having another boy I was like oh crap we used the other boy name we liked as our first’s middle! Our girl name Audrey Jane won’t get used because we are done with two! But we finally decided on a boy name for our second, I always find boys names harder for some reason!
I liked Winnifred as well (Fred for short), as well as Dorothy, Matilda, and Wren for girls. But my husband vetoed them and actually was the one who suggested Audrey in the first place.
If I were to ever had a child, the name Ignatious was always on the top of my list. That was my Nanu’s name, and I have always loved it and the nickname “Iggy”.
name giving is so hard! I have a name that is butchered on English, so I am super sensitive to how names sound in different parts of the world.
How interesting to recognize a preference for names based on certain traits that you keep going back to – I’ve never gone through this exercise so it’s intriguing to hear this side of it! Who knew such long lists and vetoes were part of the process
Those are cute names! I love Stella, why the veto?!
I loved learning about how you came to decide on baby names! The ones that didn’t make the cut but were on the list are great, too. Such a huge responsibility, naming another human, isn’t it? Our Cate was almost Ava (glad we didn’t – we know way too many girls named Ava now!) or Isabella, so we could call her Izzy. Ethan was almost Sam Finnigan, but with neither of us being Irish, we thought it would cause too much of a hassle for him 😉
Baby Names I Love, But Didn’t Use – Megan Joy
[…] shared some baby names she loved but didn’t use for her 3 kids. You can check out her post here! It reminded me that I’ve been meaning to do a post like this for a while now. If we have […]