Baby Names

I’ve been pondering baby names throughout the whole wait period. 

When we first started the process, I was dead set on Madeline for a name.  Well, everybody and their brother started naming their girls Madeline (and every spelling variation known to man – and probably others extremely odd as well).  Then I saw that my mother – in – law’s mother’s middle name was Sophia.  I loved that name too, until everyone started naming their daughter that. 

I really don’t want to follow a trend.  I want something relatively timeless.  I want her name to be something meaningful.  I don’t want to follow the trend where every “I” is replaced with “Y”.  I want people to see her name and KNOW she’s a girl – so androgynous names are out. 

Another name I had chosen at one time was Alberdena Johanna.  Alberdena is my maternal grandmother’s name.  Johanna was my paternal grandmother’s middle name (her first name was Henrietta – um, NO!  I will not do that to my child, no matter how much I loved my Grandma).  I would have called her Allie Jo.  My Grandma Allie told “you’ll name her Alberdena over my dead body”.  Well, she’s still living, so that’s a no, as well. 

But now, with the adoption, her middle name is going to be her given Chinese name.  It will be in honor of her heritage. 

So we’re back to square one with choosing a first name.  Ideally, I’d like a list of names to choose from.  I believe that you can’t accurately name a child until you look into their eyes and see their face.  Don’t get me wrong, there are many cases where I’ve heard of the parents choosing the name before they see their baby, but in my case, I’d like to see her before I name her.  Another difficulty is that my husband and I do not agree on names we like.  Yes, there are a few; but for the most part, we have different tastes. 

I like the idea of the name honoring someone who means the world to you.  The one name that I keep coming back to is Jolee.  It’s a combination of my brother’s first and middle names….incidentally, his “nickname” of sorts.  It means “pretty” in French.  Sorry baby bro…don’t mean to call you “pretty”.  Not that you aren’t handsome! 

I asked my nieces for their opinions.  They gave me Taylor, Tanner, Maddie, Emma, Tyler.  I told them that I needed girl names.  My youngest niece replied, “They ARE girls.”  This is what I mean by androgynous names.  I’ve always known Taylor, Tanner, and Tyler to be boy names.  I once saw a movie (not for young eyes) where the leading lady (if you could call her a lady) was named Alex and she was assigned a dorm room with 2 other men.  I don’t want to take that kind of a chance with my little girl.  

So….names.  Any suggestions?