The list of most popular baby names from 2008 was released today, otherwise known as “the list of names NOT to give your child.” Who wants to be Emily #12 or Jacob #9? I grew up as Brandi J., or in 7th grade when the girl who sat behind me in English shared my first/middle/last names, I became Brandi #1. There were Brandis everywhere. Not to mention the littany of “Br” names that were terribly popular and would cause me to instantly respond, like Brandon or Brittany.
The Social Security Baby Name site is my favorite name site. You can go back to see the top 1000 male and female names since 1880. 1880!!! That’s nearly 130 years worth of baby names. If you’re like me, you search the list for anything not within the top 100 for the past ten years. I can say my two middle name picks don’t appear in the top 1000 and my first names are in the 200s and 400s respectively. No, I will not tell you what they are. I will tell you, that they are awesome!
I’m not sure if I share this odd characteristic with other IVFing women, but almost as much as I want to have a baby I want to name one. Petty? Maybe. Since I was a little girl I’ve dreamed of all the cliche scenarios – prom, my wedding, becoming a mother. My 6th and 7th grade scrapbooks have lists of names I liked so I could save them for consideration much later. (I’ve looked at that list recently, I am not using ANY of those names!) I feel like it’s one of the most creative expressions a parent can make – not to go so far as many Hollywood celebs and name my baby Tissue Willow Lollipop Sprinkles – but something that’s interesting, familial, and positive.
Shelton has begrudgingly played along with “name the baby we don’t have” for years. And by years, I mean pretty much as soon as our pillows started lying next to one another at night. Finally! Someone to play my game with me! (Why he didn’t run away then I will never know. But he had his chance and now he’s stuck.) He rarely likes anything I suggest and I don’t think there’s much he’s suggested that I care for. But, we have landed on a boy name and a girl name that we like very much and I can’t wait to inflict them upon the innocent baby that will hopefully spring forth from my womb a year from now.