Baby Names ...

A lot of pressure growing up a root number.

 

Primo(a) for the 1st born, Secondo(a) for the second, Tre for the 3rd,

 

About six months after my youngest brother Jeff was born, our first cousin Jeff was born.

They're still, almost 50 years later, Jeff and Little Jeff, at least in my immediate familiy.

 

I have first cousins named John on both sides of the family. They were both born after me, so the name was taken! I don't go by John, the other two do, so no name mixups really at family gatherings. But it still kind of irks me that my dad's brother used John 11 years after my dad used it, mostly since we share the same last name. We're both technically John "Redneck."

Now that we've got two kids and another on the way, we're well read on naming trends and the does and don'ts. Relatively common names that stand out (Any "Jennifer and Jason, Madison and Montana" fans?!). We try to stay away from REALLY popular names, although since naming the first two, their names have made it into the top 10.

Also, to reiterate, no funky spellings. Abigail is Abigail. Also no Rico juniors. And no using a middle name as the name the kid goes by. I've been tortured by that all my life in school, job interviews etc. I refuse to do the same to any of my offspring. "John Redneck?" Uh no, I go by "Rico."

 

Awesome. Wish my son had pushed something like Iceman or Cyclops for his brother.

My wife named our oldest herself. Always wanted a Christopher, and she used my middle name, so I wasn't arguing. Only argument was that she wanted him to be Christopher, and I told her he was inevitably going to be Chris. I was right.

For our second, we went back and forth with names over and over. For a boy, I went with all the sports figures I could think of that I wanted (Greg for Maddux, Charles for Barkley, James for Jim Kelly, even Thurman for Thomas). Finally, I suggested Hunter, taking it from Jim Kelly's son. She went for it.

For our third (which we lost), we went with Spencer, which I took from Spencer Tillman.

Glad we were never having a girl, because she wanted Charity or Chastity, both which I think are stripper names.

And I would like to join the chorus -- no weird spellings.

 

Our first kid showed up in October and we spent about eight months debating the name. After about a 6 month mark, we decided we'd stop talking about it and wait until she showed up to name her, so we had a list of about 5 names that we liked. But we learned early not to share our choices with anyone, because most people provide horrible responses: "Oh, don't name her that, I knew a girl with that in high school, and she was a slut." "Oh, you can't name her that, that's my neighbor's dog's name."

So we went almost the entire pregnancy without sharing any of our choices. With about two weeks left, I had to get a flu shot. The nurse giving my flu shot asked what we're naming our daughter. I tried to skirt it by saying we haven't picked a name but she persisted. Because she was about to stab me in the arm, I reluctantly told her our list of ideas. She responded: "Those are yuppie names." Then she looked at my address and said: "That makes sense, that's yuppie territory."

Her name? Doris.

In the end, we had a name jump in the discussion during the last week or so, and that's what we ended up going with.

 

My wife is due in April, and we initially weren't going to tell people the name. Then, whenever people asked and we said we hadn't decided yet, they offered moronic suggestions. So we just started telling people to avoid their bad ideas.

 

For what it's worth, if it's a girl, I say go with Grunka.

 

The advantage we had adopting an older boy is he came prenamed.

The disadavanatge is that he's from Russia and most people spell it incorrectly.

 

My name is so common that there were 8 of us in my high school graduating class.

I didn't want that for my kids.

So both my son and daughter have names-- legit, fairly simple names with normal spellings-- that were popular in the early 1900s. People still have the names today, but they are pretty rare.

It's tough, man. I found boy names especially tough.

My daughter's name could really pick up in popularity after the next Summer Olympics, though, because there's a great athlete out there with her name...

 

Using names from a century ago is a really cool idea!

We sort of went that route for our daughter, using a former first lady's name that has made a huge comeback in the 10 years since the little bundle of joy entered the world! Struggled and struggled deciding on a name for our son (boys names have been tough for us, too). With No. 3 on the way, we've already decided on another former first lady's name if it's a girl. If it's a boy, we really haven't got a clue at this point!

 

Lady Bird Redneck is an AWESOME name. Well done.