Baby Naming

As we now know that we're expecting a little girl, we're going through the arduous process of determine what her name should be. Why? Because we last the female names we had picked out when we went through this exercise on the first child and determined he was a boy. Oh. You meant, "why is it so difficult?"

Because I make it difficult, that's why. I have a mental list of rules I continuously add to and I feel a little bit like Liz Lemon about baby names. Here are some of them:

• The name needs a certain rhythm and beauty that I like. It needs a certain je ne sais quoi.
• It can't be the name of someone I'm emotionally close to that's still alive.
• It can't be the name of someone I know and didn't like.
• It can't be the name of a child of someone I know. (Coworkers have stolen names from me.)
• The name can't be overly popular (in my generation or in the current generation).
• The name shouldn't evoke a hippy, hipster, or abstract concepts. In short, it shouldn't be ridiculous.
• It can't be the name of a dog or cat.
• Generally speaking, location and object names are out.
• It can't be the name of a character from a show I like.
• It can't be the name of a famous person that I like.
• It preferably has multiple forms. The legal name will be an acceptable formal version.

When you factor in that this is for a girl, it gets more complicated:

• The name preferably isn't just about being pretty or faithful.
• There can be no stripper / porn star connotation for the name. This includes nicknames, so, since my last name starts with a 'D', the first name cannot start with a 'D' so she can't be "double-Ds".
• The name can't be a derivative of a male's name. As an example, "Daniel" => "Daniella" is out.
• She may someday get married and may choose to change her last name. That's all well and good, but it adds some complexity. The name now needs to be versitile and can't create rhyming common scenarios.

If I really like a name, I might make an exception to some of the rules.