Baby Names

I had a request from Sayre to talk about how we’re choosing baby names.Unless you’re one of those that does ‘junior’ or always names a child for their grandparent, it’s not an easy task. You have to find just the right name to go with not only your last name, but pick a middle name, too, that is becoming and would sound good announced aloud at a graduation or other event. There has to be flow, and it should mean something to you, at least in my estimation.

Keeley’s name is Irish in origin. Keeley is an Irish surname–in fact my SIL has cousins with K as a last name. It’s been used as a first name for a few decades here in the US, but it’s not extremely popular. That’s something I feel strongly about. You won’t find a top 10 name here. I obviously can’t go into too much detail without revealing what names we are considering, however, you can be assured that you’ll go ‘really?’ and then.. hmm.. and then, ‘I like it’.. that’s pretty much what everyone does with Keeley’s name. I’m not big on the ‘repeat the letter’ Duggar game, so there’s not much chance of another K, but a hard C sound would be okay with me, since it’s not literally alliteration! Oh and Keeley came from a book and Josephine from a song and Matthew’s family tree. It’s French. I’ve tried to find some French names to go as middle names, but I’m not having much luck, so we’ll just see how it all pans out! I have spent a lot of time thinking, researching, and looking up meanings, origins, and saying combinations out loud. We haven’t taped the names in giant font to the nursery wall, but that’s next!

Why Irish? My mom’s maiden name is O’Neal. Need I say more? So far, we’ve been unable to track Matthew’s ancestry as easily as that. We are guessing English or German–but basically, it’s all Smith or something similar. The rest of my family is Irish or English, with a little bit of American Indian thrown in for character. Unfortunately, most common Irish names have already been ‘taken’ by the appx. 100 cousins on my mom’s side.  We’re doing our best not to repeat any names, we’ll see how we do!

Some names that have been discarded for overuse or rising popularity: Conner, Aiden, Liam, Kaitlyn, etc. Obviously, we could use something like Siobahn, which is gorgeous, but we’d forever be correcting people on how to say it, and I’m afraid I’d be a consistent eye roller over it, lol. Also bumped from the list, Michaela, which I really liked, until people started spelling it Mikayla and it shot up the popularity list entirely too close to the top.

I think we’ve got one boys name that survived from last go ’round and 2 new names that are possibilities. One girl’s name also survived the purge from last time, with 2 new additions. We don’t make an official choice until we’re holding the little one, though, so don’t expect to know before we have stats for you. If you’re not already a Google friend, please consider adding yourself to the list on the right sidebar, and if you want to friend me on facebook, search for me! I’m also on twitter @teamshoemaker.