What's in a Name?

I have to admit, naming a baby is the most fun and most nerve-racking part of being pregnant.  It's a lot of pressure!  I mean this kid has to go through life with the name I choose.

I feel like some parents today are pretty selfish when it comes to naming their children.  They want to have the coolest, most original name but do they stop to think of what that will do to the kid?  Are you limiting your child's future by giving them some crazy, made up name that no one can spell because you made that up too?

It should surprise no one that I'm a bit of a conservative, so I tend to like classic, traditional names.  With Claire it was easy.  I had decided years ago that if I ever had a daughter I would name her Claire Elizabeth.  To me, it is a strong, classic name that is feminine without being girly.  As for Elizabeth, well, it's a family name, so again with tradition.

I never knew and still don't know any one named Claire.  I do know that the name has become more common among children Claire's age so she will more than likely be going to school with a few girls with the same name.  I never had that problem.  I didn't meet another Andrea until I got to college, we were in the same pledge class, and she went by Annie so there still wasn't any confusion.

This time around the naming process was a little bit harder.  Until we found out we were having another girl I swore that it was a boy.  We already had a boy name picked so I felt like I was set.  I had looked at a lot of girl names just in case but didn't really feel the need to decide on one.  Then the day before the ultrasound I decided that this baby was a girl and we needed a girl name pronto.

After all day with my nose in a name book and researching online I had four possibilities:

Amelia

Charlotte

Susanna

Shelby

Chris immediately vetoed Amelia because he works with a lady with the same name and didn't want to name his daughter that.  Charlotte was also ruled out in fairness to some of my sorority sisters (it's a long story).  So, then there were two.

The deciding factor was the middle name.  We wanted to use Emily since it is a family name on Chris' side and we used a family name from my side last time.  From there is was pretty easy.  To me, Shelby Emily just didn't have the right sound to it and Chris agreed.  So that is how our daughter's name came to be.

In about two short weeks we will be welcoming

Susanna Emily Martin

into the world.  You may not like the name at first but it really does grow on you.  Just ask my mother!  She hated it, mainly because she thought I was going to spell it with a "z".  It is a strong, classic name that is feminine without being girly.  It is a name she can grow into and hopefully won't be limited by.  She may not like it for a while, I know I hated my name growing up, but one day she will thank me for giving her a name that lets her stand out in a crowd but in a good way.

I would love to hear opinions.  Like I said, it's okay if you don't like it but if you were to have a girl today what would you name her?

~ Andrea