My husband and I are expecting our first child, a boy, June 19th. We're very excited, but I've been reluctant to nail down THE name. I keep thinking that we'd like to actually see his face before settling on a name. Plus, the real reason, I'm still not sure! In fact, I'm a little jealous of some of my friends who have their baby's name already chosen. We've decided not to tell anyone our names, but now that we're drawing closer to the due date, I sure would like an outsider's opinion!
Our last name starts with an M and rhymes with "acquire." We will use Patrick as a middle name to honor both my husband and his late father. We'd like to steer clear of any recent top ten names. Our short list is:
· Leo - Leo is also a family name, but I loved it before I knew that it was also the name of my husband's late maternal grandfather. Is it overkill to give a baby two namesakes?
· Thomas - This is probably my husband's favorite. We both love the nickname Tom too. A long distance cousin has Thomas as one of his middle names, though. So, is using Thomas as our baby's first name a no-no?
· Eli - An early frontrunner for sure. But is it too much of a tongue twister with our last name?
· Harrison - A late addition to the short list, but we both love the nickname Harry.
A few other favorite names that have been vetoed by either myself or my husband are: George, Max, Greyson, Joshua, Charles, William, Finn
So, what are your thoughts? Any other suggestions? Thank you so much for your help!
I think Leo Patrick M____ is a great name. I don't think it's overkill at all to use two family names. Since this is your first baby, it's a good moment to think about future babies and what you might name them. Will using two family names for this baby make you feel like you have to do the same for future babies? If you use two family names now, do you have plenty of other good ones or will you wish you hadn't used two up on one child? And it's even more confusing than that, because you might not have another boy, and then would you regret not using both names?
If the sound of Eli seems not-quite, I wonder if you'd like Elias better? Elias Patrick M______.
I also love Thomas and Harrison! (A long-distance cousin having the name Thomas as one of his middle names is irrelevant, I'd say.)
I wonder if the reason it's hard to choose one is that you have so many good solid choices. It would be easier if you could eliminate one or two options before going to the hospital---but if not, I think going to the hospital with the list you have will result in a good name no matter what.
One way to help narrow things down is to think (for the second time in a single post) about future babies. With each name possibility, consider if it would eliminate a name you'd want to use for another child: if you used Eli, for example, maybe it would eliminate Ian and Ellie, or maybe you wouldn't want to use any more biblical names; if you used Leo, it would eliminate Cleo and Leah---and maybe Eli and Leo are names you'd want to use one but not both, so you'd need to choose which name you liked better, that sort of thing. Think also about girl names you like: do any of your boy names clash or go particularly well with them?
