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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Name That Baby!

OK--the moment all you readers have been waiting for...the opportunity to submit your favorite name for our Great Expectation.

Sharon is 25 and a half weeks pregnant, and we have no idea what the new little one (who will hopefully not be here for another 12-14 weeks or so) will be called. Last time around in that we were able to finalize the girls' names by about 21 weeks or so, but this time, no sudden inspiration has hit us, and so we are still calling her 'the baby who has no name.'

What we do know about her is that she is running great, size-wise. At the anatomy scan on Monday (25 weeks, 2 days), the baby was about 799 grams (1 lb. 10 ounces), and was just about true-to-her-gestational-age in all ways, except that her humerus is really long (she's going to have monkey arms like Hallie and consequently, like her big sister, will be grabbing at stuff on the table that she shouldn't have. Great.)

Sharon's cervix has also been virtually unchanged over the past 6 weeks, and is about 33 mm long, and there's no funneling, no contractions, no nothing. We hope this remains the case for a long period to come, but meanwhile are quite grateful that things are going as smoothly as they are and for every passing day. Of course, we are still very much aware that we are in that window where an extra 24 hours of stability counts and will be for some time.

OK--so back to naming. What are the parameters? First, it has to go with "Eble-Schrader," which is the baby's rather long last name. Second, it should not "match" Hallie's -- in other words, we're not looking for "Callie" and "Sallie" and "Molly" and "Milly" and the like. I already accidentally call Hallie "Bailey" (our old dog's name) and we don't want to add to the confusion! Third, it cannot be Sarah, Megan, or Hannah since these are Hallie's cousins' names. (Funny aside: Hallie's cousin Hannah recently voted for the name Emma, loudly declaiming that "I love the name Enema!" I think Emma is a lovely name, although quite common, but I'm pretty sure "Enema" is out!)

Otherwise, the field is wide open (part of the problem). We both like classic names and ones that are SLIGHTLY off-beat. Gender-neutral names are fine, though we haven't found one we love. We don't particularly want the new baby to have the same name as every other kid on the block, so we've got a slight bias against the top ten (obviously, we're flexible about this: Olivia was number two when we chose it and that didn't stop us last time). Anyway, that's pretty much it. So let us know what you think, and give us a middle name if you have one, too, since we have none of those either!

I can't wait to see what you come up with....so, like they say in Chicago, vote early and vote often.

22 comments:

Judith and Jason said...

My two cents!!! Love to play!

Jamie (love this name but could never use it b/c of our last name Fox and it would be silly.

Anna

Marisa

Or you could always name her Chase, Cole, or Shane!!!!!!!

Nancy said...

I love games like this :) and HUGE congrats to making it to 25+ weeks with no changes. am still keeping my fingers crossed for continued "normalcy."

Here's my 2 pennies

Ava
Charlotte
Nina
Jillian
Annabeth
Bridget
Anna
Catherine
Sarah

You could really drive yourself nuts and name her Hollie LOL!!!

I could go on and on for days with names! There are so many pretty classic names out there that just aren't used anymore! I am sure that I will want to add a million more to this, but I won't be a comment whore ;)

I'm no good at middle names. I always come up with names like Ann, Marie, Linda, totally common ones. My mom had to come up with Caitlyn's (Mackenzie) cause she was going to be plain old Caitlyn Marie :P

Brett said...

Rowan is a name I liked, but Brett rejected. It's a kind of tree.

http://www.rampantscotland.com/flowers/autumn_a.htm

Not trendy, but maybe not classic enough, doesn't end in the "ee" sound, more girly than gender neutral, I think. Take it for what it's worth.

Kirsten Wood said...

I love Charlotte, and I think it would be pretty with Eble-Schrader, but there may be too much consonance for your tastes.

My cat thinks Emma is just fine, but if it is too popular nowadays, how about Gemma?

I also love Claire as a name -- I just think it sounds tranquil.

Middle names, you're on your own. Maybe another flower name, to match Hallie, like, say, Lily?

Jennifer said...

ah, as you know we just went through this. Girls names were SO hard for us this time too. Daria's name was chosen a week before she was born after flip flopping all over the place...

Anyway, my votes include:

Scarlette (or Scarlete)
Charlotte
Mindy
Sarah (or Sara)
Amanda (nick Mandy)
Trinity (I'm a huge Matrix fan *blush*)

Jennifer said...

oh ya... here's more we considered, just found the list I had made:

Chloe
Penelope
Cassandra
Malena
Gaia (guy-ah) Long story behind this one...
Stephanie (stephania also)
Petra
Aislin
Grace
Kiera
Sinead
Diedre (nick name deedee lol)

Nancy said...

Charlotte Grace is pretty!

Billie said...

Abby and Sharon,
I am a total baby name fanatic. I don't think I've read a post asking for suggestions without replying.

So I HAVE to reply now!

I really like Delaney.

The nicknames are all cool, like Dee, or Lane, or Laney.

I like it with single syllable middle names, like Mae, or Jane, or possibly Skye after her sister.

Looking at the other suggestions, I also like Rowan and Jillian...

Are you going to tell us when you decide? I hate to be left hanging;)
Billie

art-sweet said...

I like Claire. And Alice. And how about Miriam? Or Debora? And Sarah - was that on your no list? In fact, all of the matriarchs sound pretty good to me: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah.

Yeah for 25 weeks! Here's to 15 more.

Sarah said...

Okay, you're going to think I'm nuts but I really like Clara and Hazel. I know, I'm a goofball. I'm not kidding. I think it'd be cool to have a girl named Clara and call her "The Clara." I'm also very fond of Maisy.

Sara Cohen said...

Hi there ladies. If we were having a girl we were going to name her Anna Rose, but I also love Emma, Shelby and Chloe. Good luck!

Amy Jamieson Evans said...

OMG Where should I start with the congrats! Hallie looks amazing and beautiful as always!
25 weeks wow! Get a facebook so I can send you wedding pics!
Ok here is my weigh in...
Amy for a girl :) doesn't rhyme with Hallie but still sounds good together
Evan for a boy or Colin for either!
We are coming back to philly o nov 6 through the 18th and again for thanksgiving. Would love to see you!
Amy Jamieson Evans

Amy Jamieson Evans said...

OMG Where should I start with the congrats! Hallie looks amazing and beautiful as always!
25 weeks wow! Get a facebook so I can send you wedding pics!
Ok here is my weigh in...
Amy for a girl :) doesn't rhyme with Hallie but still sounds good together
Evan for a boy or Colin for either!
We are coming back to philly o nov 6 through the 18th and again for thanksgiving. Would love to see you!
Amy Jamieson Evans

Anne said...

WooHoo on the 25 weeks!

I tend toward the more "old fashion" names and am a fan of the one syllable middle name combined with a two to three syllable first name so here are my suggestions in no particular order:

Pearl
Hannah
Grace (a bit of bias there)
Abigail
Violet
Rebecca
Elizabeth
Bess (more bias)
Clarise
Adeline
Madeline

Then again you could name her "Phillie" after your team!

Stacy said...

My favorite names:
Brynn or Brynley
Emily Brynn (that was my girl name!)
Lacey

Congrats on 25 weeks and good luck choosing a name.
Stacy

Laura said...

i kind of like "Laura" ;)
hey, how about them Phillies?

Dom Fuas Roupinho said...

Picking names is fun and hard! I like 'Eva', 'Mariana' and 'Maya'. Good luck with the choice, fortunately you still have plenty of time (and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will stay that way!)
ana

terri c said...

Lurker delurking to play... I like Hannah, Rachel, Debora, Miriam too, and also Elisabeth.

Jen said...

I work with little ones (I'm a speech-language pathologist) and I hear all SORTS of interesting names! Some I've heard recently are:

Riles
Adalyn
Teagan
Brooklyn
Elysia

Good luck!

Sara said...

What about:

Catherine
Anne (or Anna)
Mary
Norah
Jane
Patricia
(We also really like the "classic" names)


I am so happy everything is going well. Can't wait for you to reach weeks that begin with "3"!
~Sara

Dubin said...

Hi! My turn. DON'T name your baby something screwy like "Teagan" (cross between Teabag and Reagan, not a good thing).

I support the following previously-mentioned suggestions:

Charlotte
Annabeth
Petra

Annabeth would actually be enough of a change-up from Elisabeth that it just might work!

ACE 2010 said...

I love coming up with baby names....so here's some of my favorites at the moment: Audrey...which means "noble and strength". I also like Natalie but that means "born at Christmas" and hopefully your little one will wait until after the holidays to arrive! Congrats and best of luck!