Who gets to pick the name?

My first born, a boy, was named after his grandfathers. Phillip William (it just so happens that hubby's name is Phillip too).

Our second, a girl, is named Anastasia Ivory. (Ivory is my Grandmother's name... and well quite frankly, I think it rocks!)

Our Third was named after my dad's family... his middle name anyway... his name is Jonas Karl.

The ONLY thing that I made sure was that I looked at the most popular name lists for 2-5 years pervious and if there was a name we liked anywhere in the top 100... it got nixed. I just didn't want my child to be Johnny R. or Jennifer R. like it was when I was in school.

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Naming our daughter was ridiculously difficult because we have completely opposing taste in names. Or at least, that's what it felt like. We settled on the name Anneliessa Belle, which then caught me all kinds of criticism from my family because the first name was hard to pronounce/spell and she'd go through life correcting people. I caved, which was stupid of me, and had to tell my fiance that I wanted to change the name we'd spent 6 months deciding on. He was furious, and rightfully so, but I stuck to my guns.

So, finally, my daughter's first name came from a name that a pregnant friend like and her husband didn't, and her middle name came from a suggestion by an employee at the hospital when I was in for yet another stress test. Miranda Paige. I love her name, though I do wish some part of it honored a family member, just because I think that kind of history is nice to have. My fiance was against family names, but has since agreed to allow me to use family names for middle names with future children, within reason. My Mom's middle name is Myrtle and he's forbidden me from saddling a child of ours with it.

In the future, I imagine I'd take Mia's name suggestions into account, but ultimately, my fiance and I will name our children. I'm not looking forward to the next fight over names, though.

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I can't really give you any advice as to what to name your child. However, what I did a long time ago before I was even pregnant was scoured through a baby book and picked two names from each letter of the alphabet for each sex and tried to pair a few up nicely.

Or you could do what a friend of mine did and use letters from your wife's 1st name and yours to somehow put them together and make a name. That way your child's name would be unique and have special meaning. :) Good luck!

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My mother vowed to do me bodily harm if I named either of my daughters after her, as did my father if I had a boy. Mom was named after both of her grandmothers, neither name is a "good" one. The one she goes by is not easy to pronounced by anyone in the South. Family names are tricky. One may love Aunt Mildred, but please, no child deserves to be stuck with such a name. So many British girls named Louise, shudder. Poor little things.
I still feel bad for little cousin Rene', poor little guy.
I was stuck on the name Catherine with both my daughters, but once I saw them, neither was a Catherine..
One was so obviously Samantha Beth (my middle name) and the other Skylar Kathryn. I took the "Kathryn" spelling from a great-aunt.
I would have named my second daughter Zoey instead of Skylar, if not for the fact that I once had a cat named Zoey and just KNEW Samantha would point that out to her sister, born 2 days before she turned 2. Skylar came home from the hospital on Samantha's 2nd birthday, and was not considered a kickin birthday gift by her sister.
Sounds silly, but before I named either child, I said the chosen name aloud repeatedly for days, months. If you get tired of hearing the name, chances are the child will also. :)

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