What's In A Name

Now that we have revealed our baby's name, I wanted to write down how we made the decision.  Our girl's name came easier this time.  Even before we got pregnant, I started throwing around girl's names that I liked.  There were just a few girl's names that I considered, but by far my top choice was Caroline.  I knew the first time I heard it,  that Caroline was it.  I love traditional, classic names for girl's.  Ones that will stand the test of time and won't be seen as "trendy."  Shawn wasn't so sure about the name at first, but learned to love it as well.  We did throw around a few other girls names. . .Whitney and Ella.  But I didn't love either and neither seemed to fit exactly what I was looking for in a girls name.  As for a middle name, Shawn is very insistent that it be a family name.  Emily's middle name is Joy, after Shawn's Grandma's middle name.  This time I really wanted my middle name to be the baby's middle name.  I also thought it sounded good with Caroline.  So it was decided.   If we had a girl, her name would be Caroline Marie.

Now the boy name was more difficult to agree upon.  I'm still not sure why.  When we were pregnant with Emily we had our boy's name all picked out.  It was going to be Evan Michael.  Evan was another name I have always loved (along with the name Emily) and Michael was a family name that crossed both sides.  Michael is the name of both Shawn's dad and my dad and it's Shawn's middle name and my brother's middle name.  So we knew Michael for the middle name was a definite.  But once I got pregnant this time, I started questioning whether Evan should be the name or not.  For some reason I felt more pressure to come up with a boy name (maybe because I felt like it was a boy all along).   A boy has his name forever, where a girl's last name will most likely change and a boy name needs to be strong and tough.  I just wondered if Evan lived up to all that.  As soon as I started questioning myself, Shawn threw out other name suggestions which threw my world upside down.  All along our name had been Evan and now I needed to consider other names.  Shawn liked the name Evan too, but wanted to make sure we explored all of our options.  So at work one day he sent me a list of his top 7.  I opened it and could cross about 4 off the list immediately. . . Everett, Wyatt, etc.  I just didn't love them at all and certainly didn't see them as part of our family.  The problem was one of them was Shawn's first choice, the name he was really pulling for. . .Colin.  I'm not sure why I don't love it, but I just don't.  Colin Michael. . .I stewed on this name for days.  As much as Shawn tried to get me to like it, I didn't.  So instead we explored other names. . .Brady, Eli, and Brayden. Each of these names were ok, but again, I always ended up back at Evan.  I felt like I was settling using any other name.  And as my friends all said to me. . .for as long as they have known me, they knew my kids names would always be Emily and Evan.  So after several long stressful days of really doing some thinking, we finally reached an agreement.  Shawn was willing to put the name Colin aside and we went back to Evan.  At least now I can say we put a lot of thought into this name and are confident that Evan Michael is the right name for our son.