Naming our babies - always so interesting. I am the pickiest namer out there, I am certain. The first name has to NOT be on the top 10 most popular, have a great meaning, not be associated with any unsavory characters in mine or Michael's life, and sound good with our last name. It also has to have more than one syllable and, for reasons I cannot explain (because I have no logical reason), cannot begin with the letter M. It also cannot have the "oo" sound in it.
We've got the girl name all settled. If we have a girl, her name will be Cadence Abigail. We've had that settled for quite some time as it was Aaron's alternate name. (you know, had he been a girl..we would not name a son that, obviously.)
Over on the sidebar are our choices so far for a boy's name. I'm not guaranteeing that the winner of the poll will be the name we end up with, but here's what we are thinking, and we would like to get some feedback. Mostly I would like to get some feedback, since I'm not sure on one HUGE point*.
Here are the contenders:
Evan Michael (meaning: Evan = God is gracious and Michael = "who is like God?")
Simon Gilead (meaning: Simon = God listens and Gilead = heap of testimony)
And variations on the same theme.
*The "huge point??" Are "Aaron" and "Evan" too similar? Will it sound like we're trying to build a super-cheesy singing group or a sparkly family magic act or something? Another problem with this name is that Evan is ranked #40...and going up...and, especially when paired with Michael, seems a bit common to me.
I really like the name Gilead, especially the meaning - how cool is it that someone's life be a heap of testimony to our God and His working - but it might be a little extreme for us, for a first name. Might be. I'm just not sure.
So, vote away...you've got a few more weeks to weigh in. Please vote, and please leave a comment. C'mon people, I need your input.
21 comments:
I voted :) My vote was NOT for 'Gil' Muth (which you can be sure Gilead would be shortened to by high school...) or Simon (the Chipmunk who was always in trouble). I do not think that Aaron and Evan sound too much alike...they sounds like find 'brother names', and "Evan Michael Muth" would sound SO GREAT at his graduation(s), wedding, ordination???? :) So that was my vote! Thanks for letting us share in the 'name game' fun.
I'm with Rosemary all the way.
I like Gilead the best as a first name even if he does get called Gil for short. Guess I'm in the minority with that one. :) But I don't think that Evan and Aaron sound too similar. They sound nice and complementary. I wish I would have researched Chloe a bit more before we named her. But at the time Chloe was not common at all!
I like Evan Michael. :)
I'll vote later, but for now, let me just say--I have to be up there with you on the pickiest name picker. . .AND I have a lot of the same criteria as you:) Ezekiel, hmmm. . .kind of a long huh?! But it means "God is my strength/strength of God, and when we knew there were probably health risks with him AND that name was "in the running", we knew he had to be Ezekiel. Do I love the nickname Zeke? No, but he will likely get it any way and I am learning to be okay with that. Okay, so I could say a lot more, but this comment is long enough already:) Don't worry, it never crossed my mind when we named Silas that it was another "s" name and that everyone would assume we were doing all "S's"--another no-no with me by the way:)
Understand the pickiness. I think it's warranted when you're choosing the identity of a new person which they will carry throughout life. Also, sounds and associations are huge.
As for my opinion, I actually chose Simon because I think it's a great name. As for the Aaron-Evan thing. As long as your next one doesn't follow the trend, you should be ok.
Julia
You have some great choices. I really like Simeon Gilead. JA and I still haven't decided on a name for this baby and baby will be here in just a few weeks. Then again, maybe it will give me something to think about while I'm in labor.
I think my vote is Evan Michael, with my Simon Gilead being a close second:)
Oh yeah, have you tried this cool site yet? I'm sure you have, but I thought I'd share just in case.
www.babynamewizard.com/voyager
Evan Michael is by far my favorite. Gilead would be my last choice.
My boyfriend's niece's name is Caydance. Her last name has a 'Mc' beginning so we call her 'Cay Mac' a lot (I think it's super cute). I don't have much of an opionion on the boy's names - I like them both very much for their meanings especially. Happy choosing!
I'm sure the Lord will inspire you with the right name. I've heard two new names recently of our new music pastors children. Haven and Selah. These are names I've not heard of before.
Cadence is again on our short list for girls this time around, so I'm sortof selfishly hoping that if ours is a girl that yours is a boy. :) Not that they'd get mixed up a lot since we live hundreds of miles apart....hmmm. Oh, I meant to say, "I like!"
Same sentiment on the boys names, but I think Evan Michael is my favorite between the two. I don't think it sounds at all cheesy or sparkly as an "Aaron-sibling-name." :)
Soon and very soon!
While I was a big fan of gilbert blythe I too think Gilead is... well I cant even say the word (nor can I spell mispell so take that with a grain of salt).
Take it from some one named amanda that it doesn't matter how popular a name is. My name was not that popular but EVERY stinkin time I call the doctor office the girls name is amanda. It got way freaky popular some years ago. It's anoying.
Emma is really popular and so is andrew. There was only one other emma in her class. What was a bummer is that when they had to call her something other than emma it was emma L. I thought that sounded stupid!
My casey's name is aaron and when he went to kindergarten there was 5 other aarons so his mom said call him casey. And now they still do?!?!
Caseys moms sitter (follow me) is called candy when she goes to the riffle range b/c one time when the teacher said whats your name she liked candy so much she said candy. Her name is marianne. When she entered college the girls took boy names and the family has called her bobbi ever since. She married a man named bob?!?!
At my house we have alona, andrew, eva (ava), amanda, and aaron. Eva's dads name is evan and her mom is elizabeth. Good luck this is hard I know. I had names picked out like laurie did (one fair hair one dark hair). Sometimes you just need to look at a kid. I and heck you can name him bill and call him joe bob!
You should post your names on a poll on www.babynamegenie.com and also put your criteria for a name. People on that site are very helpful and usually put a lot of time into coming up with names that you probably would not think of on your own.
My two cents are that I really like Simon Gilead Muth. I like Evan Michael as well, but there is something about the name Simon that I really like--the meaning and the sound of it. And I didn't think of the chipmunk when I first heard the name.
Thanks for the input you guys! I think the hardest thing for us to decide is whether or not we want to use Michael's first name as a middle name or not. We are kind of leaning more towards "not" at this stage of things. ;-)
We have checked out baby name wizard, BTW. Thanks for the suggestions.
After all this discussion, I bet your having a girl!!!
Isn't this fun!
Kara, my thoughts exactly. But in that case, we sure would have an easier time with the next baby! :-) Lotsa options!!
See? It's FUN being surprised with the gender!!!
Simon Muth--does it have too many M's? Would it be shortened to Si? or Simuth? I kind of like Evan Gilead.
Listen lady, I was surprised the first 3 times! Now for some reason I just can't take it- don't ask me why!
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