Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Toddle Along Tuesdays-Baby Names!

I've finally got some time and ambition to contribute to TAT this week! The topic is baby names.

When we found out we were expecting our first, I had originally decided that I wanted to be surprised-thus we had to come up with names for each sex. The boy name seemed to be easy. We didn't want a "trendy" name, we wanted something that was classic.We were also considering family names. The boy name we finally decided on was Alexander Orville (Orville being Adam's grandfather's name). I liked Alexander since I was a young person! And we figured whichever name we didn't end up using we'd save for the next child. The girl name, however, was a different story. I spent countless hours with my nose in the baby names book trying to find just the right girl's name. We still hadn't decided on a name when I/we gave up wanting to be surprised and find out what flavor baby we were having. It was shortly after we found out we were having a girl that we decided on the name Clara Ann. Both are family names from both sides of the family. Everyone that we told the name to just gushed over it! They all thought it was beautiful and timeless. :)

This time around, the girl name came easier. We started talking about names almost as soon as I found out I was pregnant! I wanted something that was "vintagy" and that would go well with Clara (it being sort of an old-fashioned name as well). We ended up deciding on Eleanore Louise. Louise is my mother's middle name. I am TOTALLY in love with this name! It's beautiful, and timeless, just like Clara's.

I'm not sure when it was, but I started having doubts about our choice of boy name from last time. I just wasn't feeling it anymore. Plus I was having issues with the length of his name. I'm not really a fan of the shortened version, Alex. So the hunt was on for a new one. It took MONTHS. I scoured the baby name books and websites for countless hours a day. I just couldn't seem to find the right one...or if I found one I liked, we couldn't agree on it. Finally, I decided I had looked through every name I could possibly look through and thought my head would explode if I looked anymore so I made my "short list" and sent it to Adam to look at. We ended up deciding on Samuel James (James is Adam's middle name). It's a very strong name and I'm in love with it. :) Samuel wasn't even one that I had been previously considering, but we had been discussing names before bed one night and Adam tossed that one out. It took a little while to mull over that one before putting it on the list because I've got a friend with a son named Samuel. We had also considered using Adam's first name as a middle name, but after deciding on Samuel, we decided that Adam wasn't a good choice of middle name (it would have been Samuel Adam lol).

So there it is: our first two children will be Clara and Samuel. They almost sound like a little old couple, don't they? That's what I love about it. And, if we do end up having more children, we've got at least one name picked out already if it's a girl!

7 comments:

  1. I love your names! So much!!!! Eleanore is one of my absolute favorite names. I love the name Samuel so much too, but we have a Samantha that goes by Sam already in the family, so that would never work too well for us. When we named our daughter, I wanted Maggie Eleanor, but I love Elizabeth so very much, but didn't want her to be called Liz or Beth, so we used it as a middle name instead of Eleanor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And I love seeing Wisconsin mamas on here :) I'm from Wisconsin and somedays wish I would just move back, but all of our family is in Minnesota and we go to our cabin in Wisconsin every chance we get :)

      Delete
    2. Well, at least you still get to come to visit! Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  2. I think those are great names! I LOVE the Eleanore!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Long before I was even pregnant, my husband and I were randomly discussing baby names, and my husband started throwing out names of composers (he loves music). Friedrich, Johann, Feodore, etc. And I said - what about girls? And he said 'Clara!'. And although I had been kind of laughing at all of the names up until this point, I stopped and we both said 'yes!'. It's so beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love love love Clara! I wish it and Carina weren't so similar or else I would totally use it for another girl :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love the girl name you picked out!

      Even though we've been calling our son by his name for the better part of the last 5 months, it's going to be weird to be able to put a name with a face soon!

      Delete