Zestpoole, Walkasheaqua, Tugdick*...help us decide!

As time is winding down, we are left with one of life's biggest decisions...what in the world do we name a little person?? If you scan the shelves at any store that sells books, you'll see book upon book of names, some claiming to list over 100,000 name choices!! How is someone supposed to narrow it down to just one name? It sort of reminds me of the menu at The Cheesecake Factory (have you looked at that thing??) - way too many choices to remember what you saw on page one. You have to take notes as you flip through it so you can remember what sounded good!

I have never been very good at making decisions, especially when there are too many choices in front of me (luckily our name book only had 60,000+ names to leaf through). Somehow though we have narrowed it down to two names. The hard part will be picking the winner - I have convinced Mark that however determined he is for "his" name to be the winner, to wait until he sees the little one before his mind is completely set in stone.

Mark has very rigid guidelines for picking names. Some of these were that it couldn't be on any "top" lists - top 10, top 100 etc. I am like the anti-bandwagon jumper. For some reason, unless I liked it prior to a rise to fame, I will not join in the fun of something if it has become a pop culture phenomenon (i.e. Harry Potter - I just refuse and you can't make me)...I know I am weird like that. Anyway, so no top baby name list entries is the first guideline. My next guideline was that the name has to be a "bit" different, and by a bit I mean every so slightly - like Melanie. People are familiar with it, but it's not the name of every other girl in your kindergarten class. Especially for a girl being given the last name of Smith, you need something a "little" different (I am afraid we won't be naming anyone Emma, or Joseph). Mark's next guideline is on a little different wavelength than mine, but the name can not be associated with anyone in the adult entertainment industry (Sorry Jenna and Traci).

So after the names pass those and a few other guidelines, Mark must do his usual anal rituals of googling names to see what comes up, how common it is, what searches it finds... checking social security records, the FBI's 10 Most Wanted lists...whatever he can find. It's a long process folks. For me, I just wanted us to go through our book individually, make up our lists and see if we had any of the same names written down (I think we wound up picking one name in common that we both liked). Then the fun part of vetoing names came. I have to say I was quite surprised with some of the names Mark came up with. After hearing all of his suggestions for a boys name (can I just say how glad I am that we're having a girl?!), I wasn't expecting most of the names he said he liked for a girl. I will leave it to him to share those with you at a later date so he can explain why he liked them (and why I vetoed them).

So here we are with our names, and Mark has made me swear not to tell them to anyone. He is so impressed with his name choice that he thinks once it is revealed everyone will bow down at his feet due to his pure genuis-ness.

What I want to know, is what do you think our name choices are? I wonder if anyone could guess what Mark has chosen. I am willing to bet that no one will be able to guess his choice, although if you really know Mark, it won't be a huge stretch to understand why he picked this name.

It's such a huge responsibility in naming a kid. You don't want them to hate you forever for the name you saddle them with, and you don't want a name that will make for obvious teasing on the playground...it's a big decision! So hopefully our child will not hate us no matter what we decide to name her!

And with that - let the guessing begin!! Don't disappoint me!

*A great big Thank You to the Utah Baby Namer (http://wesclark.com/ubn/) for the name suggestions!