Straight From the Bottle

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; So Archer would, were he not Archer call'd. Felix though? Maybe it’s me, but he looks more like a Henry right now...or maybe Samuel. Isn’t naming the unborn one of the most addictive forms of parental power? When my wife was pregnant with Adam (our youngest boy) we were convinced he was going to be girl and had chosen the name Fiona Ophelia until we realized it sounded like some sort of skin condition or a lover of melancholy socially irreverent female singer-songwriter pianists.

Born William I, too, went through the moniker evolution: Billy, Bill, Willy, Will, Billy Jo, M.C. Shadow (breakdancing handle), Shark (college nickname) and back to Bill. (Never went by William, always seemed too poetic and formal for me)

He does kind of look like a Felix.. weird!

I'm not in the market for a baby namer, but if you got any suggestions on how I can convince my husband of what currently in-utero son should be named, I'd love to hear them. I have known he was a boy for sometime now (long before the ultrasound confirmed it) and I know what his name is. My husband doesn't like the name, though, and I'm just not sure how to break it to him that the kids has already been named, by a power greater than either one of us... Why couldn't couldn't I have married one of those "you're always right, honey" kind of men?!?! Drat!

Yeah, Felix would definitely work. But Archer still does, too. It's an excellent name.

When I was first pregnant with our twins, I was convinced they were both boys. We had all these kickass boy names picked out, and almost no girl names. Because of this, it was that much harder to shift gears and think of the babies as girls, let alone think of names. Girl names are harder, I think. It's tough to find that balance between feminine and able-to-be-taken-seriously (someone could write a PhD dissertation on that, I'm sure), but once we had the girl names picked, we just *knew* they were right. It's amazing how quickly the names melded themselves with the babies, and continue to do so.

But Felix...yeah. Maybe.....

I babysit for a Lexington! She is two and smart and gorgeous, and is mostly called Lexie. If we can have Madisons, why not...?

We entended to name our baby boy Theo when he was born, but when he came out he looked nothing of the sort so we named him our back up name: Niall. We love that name (pronounced like the river Nile) but now that he is gaining personality, i swear he looks more like a Casey (yet another one of our potential choices). I dont think we will change it, we already put Grandparents and close friends though hell with the first albiet swift name change, but i feel you on the Felix vibe. Makes you wanna wait to name the next one doesn't it.

Cheers.

Are you trying to tell us something by saying that EVERYONE is pregnant?

Nope, still looks like an Archer to me.  

What a fitting post. Today is my dad's birthday and his name.......Felix (for reals)

OK, I admit it. I'm a name changer. Maybe it was just the craziness of being pregnant, or the difficulty in coming up with a "good" name for the third time! But I got cold feet about the name we'd been calling our baby in utero (Baby Marshall). We all used it -- my husband, our other 2 kids, and my friends. Then about 6 weeks before he arrived I decided that Marshall was a name that could get ugly (Marsh? Marshy? Marshmallow? yuck!). So I went on a baby naming binge and created a spreadsheet with the top 1000 names for 6 different decades (that is 6000 names in one spreadsheet!) and then sorted and re-sorted to find a "real" name that was not in the top names for this decade but still a legitimate name. I won't cause you the pain that I caused my husband for the next month but I finally landed on Lance (apparently my psyche was paying attention to the Tour de France that summer). I should mention that my husband never wavered on his preference for Marshall. Fast forward to the hospital where the day after he was born we had still not settled on the name. My sister-in-law got involved in the conference call with my husband and I (she also didn't love Marshall, so she was on my side) until finally my husband relented. From there I can only describe that he never was a Lance. I could never say his name when talking to the baby and when people asked his name it was painful for me to say Lance and it came out as soft and drawn out and not matter of fact. After 2 weeks I decided to have a "test drive" with the name Marshall for the weekend. Even our Christmas cards were cryptic ("and baby!). Finally the day came when I dragged my husband to the county office to fill out a form to change his name officially back to what it was meant to be. Of course, they didn't tell me that the new birth certificate would show the original name crossed out next to the new name with a note at the bottom say "Parents changed name on 1/13/2005." It was the right thing to do and one of the craziest things I've done. When he grows up and hears this story, he'll be messed up. Who knows maybe he'll change his name back to Lance?!!

nice.  I love that you want to change his name.   I feel the same way.   I had "Luka" picked out for a girl and Wolfgang for a boy.  We didnt know the sex but we're adoment it was a boy.  Nope.... we had a girl and the babe NEVER looked like a Luka.  We came up with "Gia" in 2 seconds (her dad did actually). I call her GiGi and I love that name....but had he not vetoed my pick in the hospital - her name would be Mila. I know he wont go for a name change, and I probably couldnt commit on paper - but can I just start calling her mila>?   Is that weird?

I am in the same boat as "Ima name changer." My daughter was Kyanna (pronounced key-on-uh but everyone who doesn't know her says kai-anne-uh!)I didn't want a "regular" name for my son. I liked Xavier and Xander. Then I settled on Javiar. NOT Javier (Havi-air) but JAY-VEE-ER. After much crying I found out that it cost 200 bucks to change a name but only 15 to ammend a misspelling. So I told them they spelled Javiar wrong. The correct spelling was K-O-R-D-E-L-L. Get it right. Thanks. Here's your fifteen bucks. Now I wish he was named Jason.

Well,having come from a very long list of William's. I new we had to break the list with my son. My wife and I flirted with Max and Dylan but settled on  Justus and It fits him well.

Dude, I need a baby-namer!  BAD!

Girl's name?  No problem.  Boy's name?  Uhhh...nothing.  And my husband keeps suggesting "Jefferson Starship."

Oh and... I think Archer is such a Ben.

to BabyInBroad: My new favorite name is Kaleb or Caleb. But Jefferson Starship is good too :)

I had the name Avery picked out for a girl. I thought it was a girl, until I saw a penis in the ultrasound. I couldn't think of suitable name for a boy at all, everything I came up with sounded like he could eventually get beat up for it in high school. About a week before my little guy was born, I finally decided to call him Avery anyways, it was the only name that stuck with me for nine months. He really does look like an Avery too, it's totally fitting. p.s., My name is Rebecca too, and I go by Becca. Which is neat, i think i look like a Becca.

I grew up hating my name. I'm 33 now and have never met another Jeannie that wasn't at least 20 years older than me. I really believe that your name has a specific vibration and helps determine what your personality is. Think about it, haven't you ever really liked several people with the same name. For example, I have never met a Bryan I didn't like.

I named my son Caden. I found the name in a book and immediately it felt right. I toyed with the name Aiden but I kept meeting kids with that name and they were loud, chatty kids. I think the universe has a way of letting you know what is right if you choose to listen.

The only Felix I ever knew was a male exotic dancer. He was tall and gorgeous and totally hetero and in person at home, really kind of dorky, but fun. We called him Fifi the Italian Stallion.

I think he's more of an Archer, but maybe that's because of the feline connotation of Felix (to me).

Asher is a good name. And, Felix is my absolute favorite boy name. Unfortunately, my husband HATES it. Makes him think of the cat cartoon, which is a dumb reason in my opinion but whatever, we're going with Roscoe. It's a little bit country and a little bit rock-n-roll.

You know you CAN become a professional baby namer. And it pays big. Check it out.

online.wsj.com/.../SB118247444843644288-lMyQjAxMDE3ODIyNDQyNzQ0Wj.html

A spreadsheet with 6000 names????? That is some crazy shit, I'm A Name Changer.

I think it's so funny how people love baby names. We drove our families crazy by not telling them what names we were thinking of. We didn't actually choose a name until the baby was born. I was afraid that if I chose a name beforehand, then I would obsess about it and it would start to sound weird and funny to me.... and then I'd be thinking waaaaaaay to much about it and end up creating a huge ass spreadsheet.....

Just giving you a hard time. Marshall is a nice name. Lance, not so much.

I have a Felix. It's a great name. I wanted Fidel, but that doesn't play so well here in the US. I do, however, LOVE the name Archer. Maybe our boys can swap when they get older.

When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me she was convinced I was a boy; and with that, she decided to name me Michael Everret. But, alas, I was born a girl, and I didn't have a name for almost a whole month. She showed me Christmas cards (i was born one month exactly from Christmas) where it said, "Love from Angela, Phillip, and Baby!" Finally, she settled on Chelle. Mind you, I still had the middle name Everret. (and still do to this day). I distinctly remember when I was around five or six years old, my mother was across the room, and I heard her thinking outloud. She had said, "Micheal... Michelle... MICHEALA!" (it's pronounce Ma-Kel-Ah) and called out in my direction, "Micheala!" and I sooo remember turning around and asking "What, Mommy?" and since that day, I have always been a Michaela. But i'm still stuck with Everret =/