June 27 11

Ethan Aaron was going to be the name of my first-born son.

I told my now-husband this piece of information way too early in our relationship. But I felt it important to let him know that this was non-negotiable; it was simply going to be. I allowed him, however, some input into what our first-born daughter would be called. From the day I found out I was pregnant, I emailed name options. Names I loved, names that meant so much to me, names I wanted to use for a wee little lady.

India. Scout. Aubrey. Lyla. Kaia. Olive.

I would get

NO!!!

absolutely not,

over my dead body,

no way in hell,

I don’t care how much you love Franny and Zooey, no daughter of mine is going to be Franny and don’t even think about naming our son Zooey

in response.

Our baby was born and we settled on the ONE name we both agreed on. And that was that. She became Emily Elizabeth. After Emily Elizabeth Dickinson. After Emily Bronte. After my Bubbie Betty. It was perfect.

I pocketed all of my perfect names for a rainy day, or, you know, another baby. A boy, we know, would be Ethan Aaron. A girl, we decided finally, would be Abigail. Until two weeks before I gave birth. A friend guessing my secret name choice made me rethink my decision to use Ethan.

“What do you think of Joshua?”

“Um. I don’t know. What should I think of it? Is this a trick question?”

“I mean…if, you know, the baby is a boy? We have to change the name now that everyone knows the name we chose.”

“Okay? Wait…that’s just weird.”

“Trust me. We can’t use Ethan anymore.”

“You are crazy.”

“I am also 8 months pregnant and the size of a small mack truck.”

“Joshua it is.”

And that was that. Our baby was indeed born a little lad and became Joshua Aaron (or Aaron Joshua, depending on which parent you ask) (and depending on whether or not you look at his birth certificate). After my Zayde Aaron. It was perfect.

The third time around, we decided that after having the delivery room girl surprise and the delivery room boy surprise that we would like to take a stab at the ultrasound room surprise.

“It’s a boy?” I asked the technician, certain that all of a sudden I was a master ultrasound technician and knew what I was looking at, even though all I saw was alien.

“I don’t think so,” she said.

“It’s Isabella,” I said.

“It is.”

And that was that. She was born and she became Isabella Rose. After my Grandpa Lou. It’s a bit of a stretch how we got to her name from Lou, but I assure you, it’s highly technical and involves Hebrew names and you are just going to have to trust me on this one.

We are done having children. And yet, those names.

India. Scout. Aubrey. Lyla. Kaia. Olive. Hayley.

Declan. Finn. Nathan. Owen. Jonah. Cooper.

The ones I wanted to use. The ones I still want to use. The ones I’ll never use.

I almost want to get pregnant just to be able to name a baby.

ALMOST.

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  1. Until I met my husband, my girl was going to be named Sophia Marie – a twist on my grandmother’s name (Mary Sophia), and by complete coincidence slightly after my mother (though I was horrified when I realized it).

    We actually discussed boys names too (I was stubbornly refusing to budge on the girl name), and he liked Logan (I vetoed even if I have a friend named Logan), I liked Nathaniel or Sean (he said no); he also vetoed David or Allan (his first and middles).

    Now he’s had a snip and we don’t have to worry about what to name a boy or a girl.

    Comment by Mari on June 27, 2011
  2. I kind of wish husbands weren’t really allowed to have a say…Hee!

    Comment by ali on June 28, 2011
  3. I love your stories, and we totally have the same taste in names! I would always name my characters in books as a child (all those unfinished “novels” heh) Emily, Elizabeth or Isabelle(a). Funny, my books never had boys, though! And I love every one of your names for sale, as well.

    Comment by Camels & Chocolate on June 27, 2011
  4. That’s too funny!
    (Mine never had boy names either.)

    Comment by ali on June 28, 2011
  5. Oh those are all good names, I must bookmark this post in case we ever decide to have a baby friend

    Comment by Sensibly Sassy on June 27, 2011
  6. They are ALL yours!

    Comment by ali on June 28, 2011
  7. I just told my fiancé that I’ve been naming my future children since I was six. Back then it was Tina. When I was in highschool it was Megan. A few years ago it was Melika (not out of the question but not top of the list)

    These days I want Nalla, Amira and Violet. Apparently I want children of the United Nations. And I don’t choose boys names. It’s not as fun.

    Comment by Heather on June 28, 2011
  8. I find boy names to be WAY harder. WAY.

    Comment by ali on June 28, 2011
  9. You could always get a fancy dog that requires 8 names and use them all at once… although dogs don’t grow up and move out and buy you nice presents once they have jobs.

    Comment by Jessica on June 28, 2011
  10. At least it doesn’t sound as though you have siblings you had to deal with. My secret boy name has been Caden for YEARS … until my first nephew was born. Braeden. Little jerk ruined everything. (I kid – he’s amazing. It’s my sister who ruined everything!)

    Comment by Jen on June 28, 2011
  11. Ha! No. BUT, I did want to have a Jackson and call him Jack…but that’s my father-in-law’s name and Jews don’t name after the living…so that one was out. BOOOOO!

    Comment by ali on June 28, 2011
  12. You forgot your favourite… Max!

    Comment by Gav on June 28, 2011
  13. ix-nay on the ax-may.

    Max Martell? SERIOUSLY?

    Comment by ali on June 28, 2011
  14. I got stuck in the middle of my parents’ arguments about naming my sister. A boy was easy – it would’ve been Keith Macdonald T—– III, with a pre-approved nickname of Kit (my gpa was Keith, my dad was Kim, for “km”, so Kit = “kt”). But my sister? Oy. Mom felt dad’s opinion was off the table, since he named me, but she also wanted to allow me to have some input. Coincidentally, I sided with Dad on the name choice. And that was that.

    Until the day after my sister was born, when Mom got a good look at her and decided then and there, with no arguing allowed, she got sole responsibility of naming my sister, and she was Haley. Granted, this was after the nurse brought around the birth certificate for her to sign, with the previously selected name. Yeah, no arguing with a new mom who has just gone through major (life-saving) surgery.

    Comment by Darcey on June 28, 2011
  15. You just need to keep up your writing, Ali– that’s how I get all those baby names out of my system. Otherwise I would have a thousand kids, too. 😀 (PS: Aubrey and Fin– both in my western! We have shared excellent taste.)

    Comment by becca on June 28, 2011
  16. We’re done too, at three. Like, really done. Surgery has made us done. But, we still have a girl name that we would have used for Preston had he been a girl that I just LOVE and that almost made me cancel my surgery.

    I love your name choices.

    Comment by Mrs. Wilson on June 28, 2011
  17. I am pregnant and I don’t even have one name on my baby name list so in 6 months I may have to look up this post.

    Comment by Dawn on June 28, 2011
  18. My baby girl is Isabel Rose! (Isabel was my Great Grandmas name, and after we named her I researched on ancestry.com and turns out I had a great great grandmother Rose!)

    Her big sister is Avery Charlotte(bronte)
    And my angel is Carys Sterling.

    I love the names India, Declan & Finn!

    I really want to have twin boys and name them Rhys Collin & Connor Edward

    Comment by Maile on June 28, 2011
  19. Our son (our second born) is named the boy name we were going to use for our daughter (our first born). We figured, if we like a name, why can’t we use it?

    Comment by SFD on June 28, 2011
  20. My one boy name is Jason Steven. It is after famed Arizona State quarterback Jake Plummer. (It’s his full name). And we will call him Jake.

    As for girl names, I love boy names for girls like Casey and Ryan.

    Comment by Kristabella on June 28, 2011
  21. My husband and I agreed on a girl’s name immediately and had no luck with boy’s names. Of course, we ended up with a baby boy 🙂 So aside from names, what are your thoughts on the delivery room surprise versus the ultrasound surprise? I desperately wanted our first to be a surprise, and promised my husband that he could decide for the next time whether or not we found out the sex of the baby. I know he’ll want to find out beforehand and if it were up to me, I would want another surprise.

    Comment by Kaitlin on June 28, 2011
  22. DUDE. Me too.

    Charlotte, Ainesley, Josephine and Penelope

    Gus, Elliot, Jude and Ashley

    Comment by Maria on June 28, 2011
  23. GAH!!! I love so freakin’ many of those!

    Comment by ali on June 28, 2011
  24. Declan was my first choice for our son: vetoed. I love that name. Then again, the one’s you ended up with are very lovely as well!

    Comment by Beth on June 28, 2011
  25. The truth is that now I can ONLY associate the name Declan with Declan from Degrassi. Heh. So maybe it’s better? 😉

    Comment by ali on June 28, 2011
  26. My husband and I picked our names years before having kids. The boy name for our first born was to be Jacob. The big dilemma was Jacob with a C or a K. (I voted for C because I like seeing two tall letters on the ends with three small ones in the middle.) A week before baby #1 was born I panicked thinking that name wouldn’t work. I was planning to speak to my baby in Spanish exclusively. I couldn’t possibly speak to someone named Jacob in Spanish! I didn’t have a backup. Luckily baby #1 was a girl. Which is good because her JK class had 4 Jacob/Jakobs and a Jake. Baby #2 is not Jacob or Jakob.

    Aubrey was also on the name list I wrote when I was about 12.

    Comment by Tamara on June 28, 2011
  27. I love, love, love talking about names. I know I told you before, but I will state it again: Emily could very well have been an Isabella. Those were our two top names should the baby be a girl, and Emily won out. 🙂

    Comment by Angella on June 29, 2011
  28. I wanted an Emily & Charlotte after the Bronte sisters! Of course I had three boys and a husband diametrically opposed to every girl name I suggested. Except Riley. Which is our friend’s dog’s name.

    Oh, and if my husband’s Dad wasn’t ill during my 1st pregnancy, our older two boys would be flip-flopped and been named Jack and Daniel (instead of Daniel and Jack). I would have been forced to name my 3rd son “Coke,” as in meet my kids – Jack, Daniel & Coke.

    Things happen for a reason.

    Comment by Marianne on June 29, 2011
  29. First off, I’ll say great choice with “Aaron”! Although I might be a little bias…
    Secondly my wife and I are pregnant right now with our second and we seem miles apart on a lot of names, but the names we DO like, we each like for the opposite sex. Stalemate.
    We named the first little guy Luke. And I’d give $1000 (or a great big hug) to anyone who comes up with a name we both agree on!
    Ali here’s your chance to name another baby!

    Comment by Aeron on June 29, 2011
  30. Selling off unused baby names…super cheap!

    Comment by kinderbaby on June 30, 2011
  31. Our newest will be named Griffin in a few short months. I plan on calling him Finn from day one.. Because. Well. Griff has too much of a trucker feel to it.

    Comment by Ash @paperheart12 on July 1, 2011
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