Monday, November 16, 2009

mama-to-be Monday - a few random things

um . . . they were only 35 cents


chocolate cravings (in all forms even marshmallow and tootsie rolls)
have been very strong lately

this is what I wore for Halloween :)

I wore it to school one day and then shopping on Halloween day with my friend, Renae, where it earned me a discount at Old Navy because it counted as a costume! Score!!


my students are suggesting names :)

Jackup took me a minute until I said it out loud . . . oh! Jacob!!! :)


speaking of names . . . I have been collecting stories lately of how people came up with their kids' names . . . frankly, having taught thousands of students at this point, I'm having trouble thinking past all of those names and finding ones we really like . . .

So, I'm curious, how did you come up with your kids' names?

What are some names you really like?

Thanks! Happy Monday! Kelly

16 comments:

Mindy S. said...

I craved all things chocolate during my first two pregnancies. And I had girls both times. :-) I shocked my doctors nurse one time when I said that I had to have a bowl of chocolate ice cream before bed every night. Baby number three is a girl too, but I am very glad that the chocolate cravings aren't quite as strong this time.

As far as names we are still hashing that out ourselves. My suggestion is that you make the name an easy spelling--with all of the creative spellings out there the child is probably going to have to spell their name all the time anyway, so you may as well make it as easy as possible. And this is probably one that you will appreciate as a teacher--I really think that the child's gender should be apparent by their name. It took me two months to figure out the gender of all the kids in Amy's kindergarten class this year (the Julian's and Kendall's and K'aden's just weren't who I expected them to be).
Have fun.
Mindy

Heather said...

I never really had cravings!

But, names...oh, names! We took the list of popular names from the Social Security Administration and went through it line by line. We had some rules...if one of us liked it, it stayed (at least for a while); it had to be "normal" (Phillip didn't want any weird names!); it had to be the common spelling.

Amy L said...

Names, names, names - we had the HARDEST time! And since we didn't find out the gender, we had to come up with names for either a boy or girl!

I went through a baby name book, the SS Administration website, and a few other websites, and made a list of names I liked. We decided that we didn't want anything that had been in the Top 20 recently (which knocked out a lot of names I loved), unless there was a strong family connection. We also wanted something classic and easy to spell (I'm not a fan of all of the "unique" spellings - it's so trendy, and I didn't want my kid to go through life having to constantly correct the spelling of his or her name).

Ultimately, we decided on Claire for a girl - it was the only name on our lists that we both truly loved. We had a couple of boys names picked out and were just going to wait and see which one seemed to fit. We didn't decide on Claire's middle name, Michelle, until a few days after she was born. Michelle is my middle name, and I love that we share that name, especially due to the meaning ("sent from God"). Good luck - just remember that you can always change your mind until it's on the birth certificate. :)

Deborah said...

I'm with the others about the name being easy to spell and not too weird. You already know this about my kids names, but we went with first name = Bible name, and middle name = family name (same "naming method" as my family).

So far, we haven't been disappointed, except for the few times Joshua has been called "Josh" or Caleb has been spelled with a "K". What's up with that?!

I know you will pick the perfect name for that precious little one!!

Pearson Family said...

cravings...for me it was FOOD! I just ate all the time. When I was still teaching, I kept peanut butter Ritz in my desk drawer!

I LOVE baby names, and really, that is one of the sad things when I think of us not having any more kids is not picking out names. I keep track of both of our families family trees....tada...EMALINE! ALL of our kid's names are family names:

Parker Gregg: Parker was Stacey's grandmother's maiden name, and Gregg (I know you know) but was his brother's name and that is how he spelled it, so that is how we spelled it.

Emaline Cagle: Emaline is in my grandmother's family tree from the 1800's. Just loved it. Cagle was my grandmother's maiden.

Bowden Owen: My maiden, and Stacey's dad's middle, and his grandfather's name.

There you have it. I did love the baby name wizard website. With all the pressure I had to name our girl PARIS, I just couldn't. That name was SOOOOO popular when she was born! The graph just SHOT up a few years ago. I don't hear much about it or HER for that matter much any more.

Have fun! OH, one of my big name pet peeves, what you name them, call them that. I am called by my middle name and I would NEVER do that to my child. Just my opinion...

Karen said...

As I'm sure you know the family lore, I chose your brother's name and your dad chose your name. I think whatever you end up naming our child, YOU will love because you will love them. One thing to keep in mine, choose a name that THEY will love. My pet peeve is when parents give children "weird" names that the child then hates. And I'm with Paige, call your child by their first name.

Mindy S. said...

I agree with your mom. Jes wasn't too sure about Emily's name before she was born. He has also been a little worried that he would get bored with the names that we have chosen in the past. Now he thinks that both of the girls' names are perfect and he can't imagine them any differently. Once you meet the child their name will seem perfect. I said in the earlier post that I prefer gender specific names, but I will also say that I know several little girls that go by names like Harper, Hunter, and Camden. I would have said those names were too masculine, but knowing the little girls, I can't imagine more perfect or cute names for them. (So, if you are worried about someones opinion of the name that you choose just wait to tell them the name until after they meet the baby--it is hard to criticize a name when you are staring at the baby's adorable face.) :-)

emily said...

I would like for you to rule out "Nink"-- it sounds sneaky :)

I'm glad you guys had a fun trip & sad we couldn't work it out to see you this time!! But that will change soon I hope!!

!!!
em

Anonymous said...

Our system was the same as Deborah and Pat's :) But, I've always been very big on the meaning of names. It's most important to me. I wanted my childrens' identity to come from someone who passed down a good legacy with their name and for the meaning to be something they could cling to. My children's names mean Full of Grace (Hannah), Yahweh is God (Elijah) Strong Man of God/the Lord is My Strength (Gabriel) and Bold and Faithful (Caleb) Their middle names were after someone (usually in our family) that was special to us.

Unknown said...

Names, names, names! We both have family middle names (Steve's middle in Monroe as is his dad's) and my middle is Ellen after BOTH my grandmothers.

My favorite "how did you come up w/ the name story" is from a family I babysat for and went to church with. When the mom was pregnant w/ her first baby, a boy, the movie Tom & Huck, came out. His name is Sawyer! :) Their second baby was a girl, Carly. Both beautiful names.

Since we've been looking too here's some of my favs that don't go with our last name or just some of my favs:
b: Kent, Landon, Griffin, Kyle, Nolan, Lucas, Jacob...I mean Jackup (that's hysterical) and g: Meredith, Kate, Aislin (that's my niece...pretty name), Sarah, Suzanne.

Have fun!
~ Renae

Kori said...

I love the kids choices. :-) Too cute! When I told you how we named our kids, did I tell you that James had a patient where he was supposed to "pronounce the space"? He didn't know what to say, nor did the other doctor or entire group of residents all standing there. They thought it was a first name and middle initial. But the mother was furious and told them to pronounce the space.
PLEASE, PLEASE don't put a "pronounced" space in your child's name. :-) I just laugh so hard every time I think about it! Of course I also remember my kindergarten student where her name began with Z but sounded like J - she couldn't understand when I tried to teach letter sounds. Surprised? Be nice to your kids. But you, as a teacher, know that already!
But for real, it is your baby and you will name it what God has chosen the name to be! How cool is that? And someone may hate it (the name, not the baby!) and someone may love it. But all that matters is you have this amazing baby!
Kori

Maria said...

Oh, the name game! This was hard for us. We knew we were having a boy...so that helped. And, several thought it would be so clever to have his name start with an M because we were both M names and our last name started with M (which can make you a little tongue tied if you say, Marc, Maria and Madden Moore, but...)...so the hunt began. We wanted something 'different' since our last name is so common. Marc came up with Madden...and I did NOT like it. I didn't like the fact that it had the word MAD in it. Marc started 'polling' people...and we actually got good feedback, but I was still not convinced....but couldn't come up with anything else. Even in the delivery room, I was not so sure...until I saw him and we both sad he looked like a "Madden" - if one can look like that! :) So, Madden it was! However, during the first couple of months, I would be up feeding Madden late at night and see the letters on his wall spelling his name and I would stew over his name...ergh..."why did we name him this? It has the word MAD in it.." Seriously, I would become so consumed with it and so I finally just would pray that I would learn to love his name...just as I loved him. Seems silly, but it worked! Now, I think it is perfect for him. It's different, but I like it. As with most things, it takes me a while to like them! Ha!
As for the middle name, it is Leroy. Bad, I know. But, it was Marc's dad's name. His dad died while I was pregnant with Madden, so it means something to us...and we can tell Madden about him (and his name) when he gets older.

Have fun with it. You are so creative, I know you will come up with something wonderful!

BR said...

I would like to have named our girl something else, but since she was adopted and came with the name, Christy, we decided to keep that name. :)

Kimmie said...

One of those names looked especially good to me. You can't beat a good JOSH!

Becky said...

We had a really hard time picking out Maggie's name. We were just looking for a first name that we both really liked. Maggie was the ONLY one that we agreed on. We wanted something somewhat Biblical in there so we chose Grace. As for Riley, that is Aaron's mom's maiden name, and we both just really liked it. We ended up keeping the masculine spelling of it because that was her name. I kind of wish that we had made it more feminine, but it truly fits her. Again, we wanted a Biblical tie and chose Faith as her middle name. I'm just glad that our second was a girl because Aaron didn't like ANY of the boy names that I kind of liked, and I had like 50 of them!

Melissa Jackson said...

So fun! I love the kids' choices. :o)

I've never had to choose a baby name, and I think that will end up being one of the hardest decisions I have to make! Here are a few "naming methods" I've heard others talk about.

1) Mom chooses girl name and dad chooses boy name (or vice versa) - I've heard of this done when the sex is known and when it's a surprise.

2) Using mom's or a grandmother's maiden name for a first name. If you have a name that works, I love this idea! "G..." could be a cute boy's name.

3) Girls have mom's initials and boys have dad's initials - This is Michael's bro and SIL's plan. There first daughter is Avery Kate (same initials - "AK" - as her mom, April Kristin).

4) One friend used her husband's family's tradition that the first boy is named after the husband and takes the mom's maiden name as the middle name. She dropped the "s" off her maiden name, Michaels, to get Robert Michael. For you guys, it would be Adrian G.... That could be cute!

5) The same friend wanted to somehow name her daughter after herself, Lindsey. They came up with Evelyn Grace. "Eve," mother of humanity who fell to sin and was saved by "Grace," and the "lyn" was for Lindsey. A lot of thought went into that one!

6) I also kind of like when all the kids' first names start with the same letter. If you find you have several names you like that start with the same letter, maybe you could choose a letter and go with that. I went to school with a family who had a Kara, Khris, Kallie, Keith, Kendra, and Kevin. (Their parents were Ken and Kathy, but I've also known families whose kids' names all start with the same letter that is different from mom's or dad's names.)

I know you guys will come up with the PERFECT name for your precious little one!