You know, back in the days when people had 10 kids, it seems like bestowing names was more like passing out lollipops than the serious matter Tyler and I make it up to be. Of course, we had our first child when I was 31, so we will never have that many children. Thus, we choose a name only after much deliberation. This is why we could never wait until the baby was born to find out the gender. The sheer number of names we would have to mull over would be much too overwhelming. When our first child was born, I think we had to narrow it down from 19 names.
Every parent has a different philosophy when choosing children's names. There are the family names, ethnic names, Bible names, names they made up in high school that are usually some derivative of some traditional name and then horribly misshapen (I'm not such a fan of these types.), those who watch old westerns to find names and those who name their children after their favorite past times (that one was for you, Paul, although you are surely not the only one).
Tyler and I are ethnic namers. Ian is a Scottish form of John and means Gift from God, and Cameron is a great Scottish warrior. Of course, had we known what the children were going to be like at birth, we would have definitely switched them. Maybe Cameron will grow into his warrior name as he learns the art of warfare from Ian. We did, however, resist the temptation from Grandma Livingstone to name either of them Duncan, which is Scottish and a family name. Apparently, she had been advocating that name for quite some time, with no success. We will have to bestow that name to an animal, since we have many more animals than children on our horizon.
Anyway, we are expecting our only girl in November. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be able to continue our naming trend because I am not a fan of most Scottish girl names. Here is a sample: Fiona, Bonnie (no offense to my hairdresser), Leslie, Elspeth, Balfour (I'm not exactly sure if this is a male or female name - but who would name their child Balfour?), Chait (meaning catlike, that would be a funny name), Evina, Laria. They are all too much for me to handle. And so, the search continues.
Family names would be interesting. My great grandmother (this is not a joke) was named Lennie Cecil Higgenbotham. Here are a few more. Some are not bad. Phyllis Katherine, Beryl Jean, Merne, Anne (I like Anne, but Tyler says it's too close to Ian.), Margaret, Ethel Gertrude, Amy Ethel......surely there are many, many more. I haven't done enough research on the Livingstone side, so please enlighten me Livingstones!
The Bible is really an endless resource for names. One of my mission companions has given all her 5 kids Bible names. If you have an open mind, you might name them something really awesome, and totally original, like Abishag for example. Currently, my favorite Bible name is Miriam, but of course, you would have to call her Mia, which is unfortunately sort of trendy.
So here we are in the midst of great deliberation. We must try to avoid the most popular names because you don't want your child to have to go by first and last name like every Jennifer and Stephanie did when I was growing up, but not something so unusual that no one can pronounce it, or for that matter remember it. Also, you have to think of every nick name other mean little children will twist your precious little baby's name into when they are in 2nd grade. Last, you have to weed out all the names that remind you of people who you'd rather not think about for the rest of your child's life, every time you say their name.
Lucky we still have 4 months left.
