what's my name?

Okay, so I’m back in blogland now, which means I’ve been surfing all my fave blogs and reading back in their archives to see what I missed. And one of the best entries I read in my catch-up was this one, on LoriD’s blog Not the Mother of the Year. In it she tells us some of the baby names that topped the list for her and her hubby during her three pregnancies, but still didn’t make the final cut.

I just loved reading the names and the stories behind them, and it got me all nostalgic thinking about the little babies I named but then never had…the names I loved as a teenager and in my twenties, the names my hubster and I talked about before I ever got pregnant, and then the names that were shortlisted while we were expecting our two girls, but never made it to real life (two that are very special because they were chosen for the son we never had).

So when I sat down to write today, those little babies were playing about in my imagination, and I thought it would be fun to honour them by sharing my own list of names I chose but never used. So here it is, in alphabetical order: What I Didn’t Name My Children.

Arwen:
You know, I’ve always loved JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and fell in love with the name Arwen ages before the movies were made. Suffice it to say I never would have ACTUALLY named my daughter Arwen, but I did sort of feel sad that the movies were so huge and were therefore likely to spawn a generation of copy-cat Arwens (like the Ariels of the 90s) because I do feel it is a beautiful name.

Bristol:
I never seriously considered this one, but the Hubster did. It’s inspired by a NASCAR race track, and he was really into NASCAR at the time. It would have been a girl’s name, had it ever gotten through my filter. But, let’s face it. It never, EVER would have gotten through my filter.

Christiane:
When I was a teenager, this was my name of choice for a girl. Pronounced “Kristy-Anne”, it was a bit pretentious but managed to last through to my twenties. Good thing I didn’t have a baby at 18, eh?

James:
When looking for boys’ middle names, the Hubster and I pulled out both family trees to scour for inspiration. What we found was that pretty much every third person in each generation of both our families was named James. We liked it because it’s a classic, simple and elegant boy’s name, so it won pride of place as the ultimate boy’s middle name for our family.

Kieran:
The first baby dream I ever had (I was about 12 weeks preggo with Girl1) featured a baby boy named Kieran. It went like this: the day after the baby is born, I get up and go to work, carpooling with the Hubster as usual. When we get home at 6:00, we see ambulances and police cars around our home and I realize with shock: I HAVE LEFT THE BABY AT HOME ALONE ALL DAY LONG! The baby was a boy named Kieran. When I told Hubster about the dream, he responded with, “why would we name a boy Karen?”

Nathalie:
I pushed hard — really hard — for this name with Girl2, but Hubster would have nothing to do with it. Not sure why, since the name we did choose in the end sounds a lot like it.

Rhianna:
Yes, I went through a Rhianna stage in university. Most likely inspired by my choice of fiction at the time (historical novels of celtic Britain), I felt it was mystical and magical. Then Brianna and Brianne began to rise in popularity and I lost my taste for Rhianna (thank GAWD).

Seana/Shauna:
The Hubster and I were quite serious with this one…to go along with one of the names we actually did pick. But in the end, by the time we were choosing names for real, it had fallen from favour. I still like it though.

Tristan:
This was my top pic for a boy when I was in high school. Now I know it is a good, ancient boy’s name with mythological associations, but still. Another reason to be grateful I didn’t have a teenaged pregnancy; largely because of its homophonic association with Krista. This is also another name (like poor old Jordan) that has always been a boy’s name but has recently been hijacked by parents for their daughters. I have even met a little girl named Michael. Honestly…what’s next? Seriously…there was a time when I might have said, “what’s next? A girl called Michael?” but I know a girl called Michael. So. I’m asking you. What. Next.

Wesley:
If Girl1 had been a boy, she would have been Wesley James M. There was much debate over the spelling of Wesley, as the Hubster wanted to spell it with a ‘t’, as in WESTley, since we had only moved out WEST from the EAST two years before. I preferred the more common (i.e. spellable) T-less version. I don’t think we ever settled the spelling debate, but I like to think I would have won out.

William:
By the time Girl2 was a-cookin’, we had abandoned Wesley and settled on William (most likely due to my enduring Wesley Crusher reservations), although we would have called him Will.

Okay…I’ll open myself up to your admiration or scorn…what do you think of our would-be baby names?