Wednesday, July 13, 2011

The great name debate

We still have a few more weeks (or 26 days but whose counting) until we can hopefully find out if this baby has girl parts or boy parts but of course we've already started discussing baby names. I told Kristian I really didn't want to discuss names too much until we knew what we were having, that would cut down on 50% of the arguments names right away. But of course we can't help but throw names out there in the meantime.

There is one girl name in particular that he loves and I...like it...not sure I love it, but at least I don't hate it which is a good start. He's much more open to girl names, the problem comes with boy names and this is why I really want to wait until we know what we're having because we've already gotten into heated discussions about what to name our possible son.

Long story short Kristian wants to name our possible son after himself. I am very opposed to this for a number of reasons, the first being that I'm personally not a fan of juniors, never have been. For the second reason I must give a bit of background:

My father-in-law is Edward Kristian but goes by Kris. My husband is Kristian Edward (so technically not a junior) and goes by Kristian or Kris depending on whose talking to him. Most of his family calls him Kris so needless to say at his family gatherings it can get a bit confusing already with two Kris'. Not to mention that my husband grew up being known as "little Kris" which would personally drive me crazy. So therefore I don't want my child to be added to the name confusion and definitely would not want him known as "little Kris" or "baby Kris" or anything of the sort. My family and friends call him Kristian, b/c that's what I call him (that's how he introduced himself to me and he said he likes that I call him by his full name) so if we were to call the baby Kristian that still doesn't solve the problem when it comes to my family and friends. Sigh.

Hope that wasn't toooo confusing. Anyways I've explained this to Kristian and he doesn't think any of these reasons I have are a big deal. But I've pretty much put my foot down. I want the kid to have his own name. So I can't help but admit that there's a big part of me hoping it's a girl if for no other reason than to put off this argument until the next potential kid.

Oh and as for using Kristian as a middle name, that hasn't been completely ruled out, however he doesn't seem completely satisfied with that idea and I have other middle names I would prefer as well. So who knows.

This whole naming a kid business is NOT easy.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

you dont have to worry about the kristian issue because you're having a girl.

jv726 said...

My husband is a third and he says he would never name his son "the fourth." Having the same name as his dad is a huge pain, they have even ended up on each others' credit reports.
I thank my lucky stars we had a girl just so his family can't be upset we didn't use his name (again). Hopefully the next one is a girl, or if it is a boy my hubby maintains his opinion that he will not name his son "the fourth!"
Good luck with the names! :)

Venassa said...

That's a tough one. I have the same opinion as you when it comes to being named after the parent. I'd much rather my child have their own name. Luckily my boyfriend never wanted to name the baby after him, and it turns out its a girl anyway. Hope if its a boy you guys can work something out to make both of you happy.

princessapr said...

We were pretty lucky. Rob's familiy is very similar in that his dad is Robert David (Bob) and he is Robert Joseph (Rob). So, I told him Robert could be the middle name and I had a boy name I loved and that was that.

We went back and forth with girl names. We had a middle name and each picked maybe 4 or so first names and then there was only one we both liked so that settled it. I think we decided while he was cooking dinner one night. Laura is still not my favorite, but I don't dislike it, and it's too late now anyway. We're in trouble for the second if we have a girl (and if we have a second).

In the end, all this discussion will just be a funny story you tell.

Nicole-Lynn said...

It sounds like a tough decision.. I don't like Jr.'s either :)

Heather said...

I also don't like juniors. My husband is named after his uncle, and even that has created confusion at times in his family, with businesses, etc., especially since our last name is not common.

Mrs. Lopez said...

I am not a fan of Juniors either so I totally understand where you are coming from.

PattyAnn said...

I told my husband "No uterus, no opinion." Ha. Of course I took into consideration, but I think my opinion outweighed his slightly ;) And, we didn't name our baby until about 45 minutes after she was born. So it probably won't get any easier!

Stephanie said...

Don't worry just yet about names... I'm closing in on 35 weeks, and we still have no name for our little man. My Huz said we should just call him "Boy" until he's 18 and picks his own name. (And I think he's almost serious...Eeek!)

It'll come to y'all when it's right. :)

Robbie said...

Here is what my cousins did with their name game. A little history- the grandfather in this situation is the brother of my grandfather. The grandfathers name was Thomas Norman (very common last name). He went by Tommy. He had a son Thomas Norman (very common last name), who went by T.Norman. Until his dad passed away when he was 10 I think. Not sure if he started going by Tommy then, but I know when he and my dad lived together in college, he was going by Tommy. He married and had a son- Thomas Hudson (very common last name). He goes by Hudson. So my point is, you can still name your child Kristian Middle name last name... and just call him by his middle name. Or you could name him first name Kristian last name. I totally see your point about having more than one name at family gatherings, and I can also tell you that Kristian is very popular with boy names so he might end up in a class with other Kristians.... Just a thought. I think it will be pointless though because I think you are having a girl :)

bridechic said...

You're so right. It can all be so confusing. All my grandfathers were George and my mother and her mother-in-law were Mary. My hubs is a junior so idenities in conversations can get easily mixed . . .

Kristen said...

I was like you... I didn't even want to waste time debating names before we knew the gender. I figured we'd end up with unnecessary arguements!

I am with you on not being a fan of the "Jr." (you can also make the arugment that it is confusing for insurance purposes - haha)

Naming a real baby is hard!

PS you are actually carrying the baby so your vote is worth more, right? Like at least 60/40 :-)

Mrs EyeCanSee said...

I totally know where you're coming from on the Jr front. My dad is Mike. My moms dad and brother were both Mike. 3 Mikes. 1 Family. When my brother was born she said NO WAY! So they compromised and gave me dad and brother the same initials. MJD. Maybe you could suggest that to Kristian? Though if he's not satisfied with using his name as a middle name, simply using the same letters probably won't work either. Doesn't hurt to try!