Baby names

Before the rumor mills start going, NO, I’M NOT PREGNANT.  However, it will happen one day.  Ian and I were bored last night and discussing back and forth what our children could be called.  We came to the consensus on both first names of boys and girls: William for a boy, Elizabeth for a girl.  (Wow, could we get anymore British?! ) 

William is both Ian’s and my dad’s name, so I feel like if we didn’t name a potential future son that, it wouldn’t seem right.  My dad goes by Willie or Will, and Ian’s dad goes by Will.  Here’s the most adorable part: we’ll call him Lil Will.      How cute is that?!?  (Bonus!  If he decides to be a rapper later on in life, he’s already got his name!)  Both Ian and I have a grandmother named Elizabeth, and I quite fancy that name myself.  No nicknames, either….no Betsy, Liz, Eliza, Beth, Lizzy, Betty, or anything.  Just Elizabeth.  It’s a good, strong name. 

That’s the easy part, right?  WRONG!  When we went on to middle names, we found ourselves questioning each other’s choices.  I suggested “Alexander” for the middle name of William.  Not only do I like that name, but it’s my grandmother’s maiden name.  Ian looked at me suspiciously.  “William Alexander Reed?  That sounds like the name of a conqueror.”  He’s got a point!  Not only that, but the kids initials would be WAR.    ……..I forgot to think about the initials as well……….  His initials would be WAR, and his name sounds like a conqueror.  Things are NOT looking up for this kid…….  William is a strong British name, and to avoid having our kid sound like a conqueror we shouldn’t have another strong British name right next to it.  Ian suggested Richard.  Both his father and grandfather are William Richard Reed, but I just don’t like the name Richard.  To me, Richard is the name of some middle age balding guy.  (Sorry to all of the Richards of the world!)  One by one we threw names back and forth but each of us had reasons for not liking them. 

Switching to girls’ names wasn’t any better.  Ian reminded me that we need to consider not only the name, but any nicknames and how kids might tease or make fun of those names later on in life.    We want to give our kid a fighting chance!  Thankfully, Ian has the ability to think like a thirteen-year-old boy and could very easy shoot down a few of my favorite names by coming up with some childish nicknames.    I finally gave up and started throwing in a few wild cards.  Since we’ve spent so much time in Japan, how about we throw in a Japanese name?  Elizabeth Kaneko Reed.  William Rinpei Reed.    It could work, right?

So that leads me to my next point…….WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO PICK OUT MIDDLE NAMES????  We already have the hard part done with.  We both agree on William and Elizabeth for kids’ names.  Why is the middle name….arguably the name that doesn’t even really matter….so difficult for us to pick out??    Unless something drastic happens, we don’t have to worry about selecting names for a little while.  It was just a funny conversation that we had!