Camp Patton: baby names

05 February 2014

baby names

also known as .... human names.

hmmm.

I don't have anything exciting to say about baby names so I'll just grab your hand and drag you down the boring paths that led us to the names of our young but I'm really hoping to hear how you all pick names because that is centuries more exciting. Guarant. Whenever Simon wants to cheer me up he offers to chat about baby names because I love chatting about baby names so I'm sorry - this is long.

I love the names we chose for our kids but I don't think they are superior to any other baby names and sometimes I do think that Theo's whole name is .... a little lengthy. Ooooops.

Also .... Ana wrote a stellar guest post on baby names that you should read and Colleen wrote a great post on how they came to name their five kids and then of course there is the legendary Swistle and I'm sure there are a million amazing name posts swirling around the blogosphere. I like looking at the forums on Nameberry when I've run out of Hulu, Pinterest, and beauty reviews when Simon is on call. He loves the 4am emails with the newest bizarro name suggestions. Just loves them.

I guess we try to strike a balance between not-totally-off-the-wall but not super popular and still sort of traditional which ... is tough and maybe we haven't managed very well because I just saw some list of popular names and both Theo and Sebastian were in the top 20. The world is just one step behind the Pattons. That was a joke. A terrible joke.

Okay ...

(birth story here)

We knew Julia was a girl after I had my thyroidectomy so we didn't even need to discuss boy names for her. Initially Julia was going to be named Sophie (love that name!) but we made the mistake of telling my family and my three younger brothers let me know how (super) strongly they disliked the name. Ha - there are no hard feelings or anything and it all worked out because Julia is definitely a Julia but lesson learned .... don't be a baby about what people think about names OR don't tell people your name picks until the baby is out and named. It's important that we stay in the saint family of names but I'll be very honest and admit that I've liked a name and then Googled to make sure there is a saint by that name and so .... bad Catholics. Really bad. I REALLY wanted Julia's middle name to be Vivienne and Simon REALLY wanted Julia's middle name to be Maureen and so several hours into my epidural and in the very early hours of the morning I decided to be a kind wife and compromise with Grace - which felt kind of weird because (duh) that's my name but ... that is that.

Onward.

(birth story here)

I think we pretty much agreed on Sebastian's name from the beginning ... I THINK. Maybe we tossed around the name Bosco (I liked Bosco James but Simon was .... eh) and if he was a girl he would've been Vivienne Clare (although Simon swears he never agreed to that but he DID, I double swear). Simon came up with Xavier as the middle name and I wish we'd saved that for a first name because I love that name as well. His nickname evolved from one of our friend's kid's adorable inability to say Sebastian's name and so she called him Bash and then Julia copycatted her and the name has stuck ever since. We didn't think about Sebastian being such a long name to pronounce (and eventually spell out ... sorry Bash!!) so it's worked out well. Kayla joked that Sebastian Xavier is one of the most Catholic names she's ever heard and I laughed because ... I guess it sort of is? I don't know.

Onward again.

(birth story here)
(and can you believe Sebastian is 14 months old here which is just one month older than Theo is now ... holy huge, dude.)

We had a difficult time agreeing on Theo's name ... it took Simon awhile to warm to Theodore because he really liked the name Patrick (which I like too but I liked Theodore more) but I've learned to be just persistent enough to be annoying and persistence pays off, I guess. I'm pretty sure Theo was going to be Isabel Bernadette (or Beatrice?) if he was a girl but I'm embarrassed to admit I'm a little hazy on that detail. We knew we wanted him to be a Theo and .... he is.

We talk and talk and talk about names but really don't have the, "okay ... can we agree?" chat until we're on the way to the hospital and with Julia obviously it was more of a delivery room decision.

As far as this baby is concerned we've talked about a few names and it's been fun hearing Julia's opinions (Madeline for a girl .... because of the book and Jimmy or Charlie for a boy because I have no idea) and Sebastian just starts talking about, "ho ho ho!! Santa!!" when we discuss the baby with him so I'm guessing he assumes storks and santas are one in the same.

My best friend from home is expecting twin girls and I can't wait to hear the names she picks out and one of my best friends from DC just named her baby girl Agnes Josephine (LOVE) and sometimes calls her Aggie Jo which is adorable and so .... lay it on me. Oh! And I have another friend that is having a really tough time coming up a name for her baby girl (she is due in April) so .... any suggestions (she likes Caroline and Olivia ... I think)?

Morgan sent me this list of names (I feel like I should bold that in case you are skimming and think this is our list) she and her friends, Kylie and Annie came up with for Baby Patton Number 4 ....

Girl

Lillian

Therese

Lauren

Claire

Elise

Emily

Audrey

Evelyn

Ava

Iris

Viola

Mae

Charlotte

Eva

Gabrielle

Gwendolyn

Rose

Boy

Paul

Luke

Ezra

Connor

Seth

Joshua

Jonah

Avery

Brady

Liam

Oliver

Quentin

Zander (Xander?)

Amos

Jude

any faves?

Do you have traditions you have to stick to? Family names? Do you hate our names (actually ... you can keep that to yourself ... I'm emotionally fragile pregnant and not)? Or vat??

..... I'd rather everyone just skip this post and read your thoughtful comments because they are usually the best part of el blog. Truly.

Oh! And I didn't leak any names we are thinking about for this baby so ... if you hate our would've-been names for the first three kids ... you won't hurt my former or future feelings ... I'm sure you were worried about THAT.

225 comments:

MFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:04 PM
This is a VERY VERY VERY SERIOUS QUESTION. But really- is Bash's middle name pronounced with three syllables like EGGS-avier, or like the university in Cincinnati, which is just two syllables at Zavier?

I love everything else. I love that Sebastian goes by Bash, especially. And I cant wait to see what happens with this fourth little snugglebug.
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ChristineFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:04 PM
I love Ava and Jonah...just cuz that's the name of my kiddos..so yah.
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Kathleen February 5, 2014 at 5:11 PM
We have a Henry Anthony because I made a promise in 7th grade when I lost my retainer but I like James and Henry and Benjamin, I also like Jude and Joseph. Not exciting but definitely classic. There is an app where you type in your other kids name and they spit out suggestions. What about Clementine?
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HeidiFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:12 PM
We pretty much stick to family names. Mike's family has a naming tradition for the first boy, so that name was picked for us. Here they are:

Joseph Stephen (Mike's middle name, and then my father-in-law's first name)
Graham Christopher (Graham is my mom's maiden name, and there are no more boys - my grandparents only had girls - and so the name ends with my mom. I really really really wanted to use it as a first name because of that sentimental value, but Mike didn't like it. It took until I was in labour to get him to agree. He chose Christopher ONLY because he liked how it sounded with Graham, and that was our compromise).
Nicholas Edgar (Mike's grandfather's name - he also was a Nicholas Edgar)
Theodore James (the boy we're adopting. Theo because of the meaning - "gift of God", which totally fits this whole adoption process, and James after my father/brother)
Ruth Catherine (baby due in May - Ruth for my maternal grandma and Mike's maternal grandma, and Catherine is my paternal grandma, AND both my mom and my mother-in-law. It's kind of a "get all the family names at once" kind of name for us)

Top contenders for this baby, if it was a boy, were Oliver and Henry (both family names on my side). However, u/s details cannot be hidden from Mike anymore and the days of surprises are over......
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HeidiFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:12 PM
And I spend way too many hours on www.nymbler.com
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Meredith {Martha Chartreuse}February 5, 2014 at 5:14 PM
I'm unwed and have not cooked a human, but, I have my names picked out. Those will be in the pre-nup. Along with wardrobe management. I'm a real catch!!

Clearly, Francis is on my list. The rest, secrets secrets.

I love the name Seaton for your future humans.
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TamaraFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:14 PM
We have:
Nathaniel William
Susannah Ruth
Abigail Elizabeth
Luke Churchill (dh wanted to name him Winston Churchill *our hard-to-pronounce last name*. Just. No.)
Gabriel Lewis (after CS Lewis)
Leah Claire

I think Susannah is due for a comeback. Feminine, lovely, saintly. But not common.
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Hannah GokieFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:14 PM
My husband and I are having the struggle of our lives trying to pick out names for our first bebe. I keep saying to him, "How do people with 7, 8, 9, 10 kids do this year after year?" because we are so indecisive. Also I've heard story after horror story of people choosing two names that they were SET on and then seeing the baby and going...shoot that's not a (insert baby name). so I'm a little panicking that if we DO pick something, it'll be a waste of time anyway.

Also, when I was a youngun and my sister was about to be born, I demanded that she be named either Hodie or Wheatie. No idea why. So you could always choose those wonderful options.
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MadelineFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:14 PM
Well don't tell Miss Julia, but when my mom was little she wanted to name a girl Madeline because of the books and... here I am. Her first baby named when she was a kid. The upside, there was no shortage of themed gifts for me. The downside: not pronounced Line but Lynn (but whatevs right?) and then the name got so super popular that I get yelled at in grocery stores all the time. (Obviously not me but I still look around like how'd they know my name until I figure it out.)
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ElizabethFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:15 PM
So, have you ever read Brideshead Revisited? I did maybe a year ago, and every time I read two of the main characters' names, Julia and Sebastian (siblings, even!), I'd keep thinking, geez, why does this feel so familiar?! And then it clicked. (I LOVE all three names, by the way.) - English lit nerd, signing out
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AnnaFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:16 PM
Oo! I love names! Charlotte Rose would be so pretty for a girl, and work with your other names. Question, though: do you not like to recycle options? Would it be weird for you to have a Vivienne or an Isabel, since they were already options? Because I think Vivienne is so, so beautiful. I also am really liking the flower name trend--Violet would be sweet with your family, or Iris, or Hazel. Phoebe's sweet, as is Bernadette (major Catholic points, there!) For boys, I think Frederick would work with your other names, or maybe Laurence? Julian, Leo, Henry, Hugh, Peter?
My kiddos are Clementine Eloise and Gilbert Henry, with our next options set as Beatrice Eulalie or Leonard Peter. Yes, I love nameberry. And yes, bad Catholic, who retroactively checks to make sure there's some Catholic connection.
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JennaFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:16 PM
Miriam was always Miriam (because I wanted a version of Mary after our Holy Mother) and would've been James Edwin had she been a boy. I liked St. Maria Goretti but couldn't have a Miriam Maria, so I liked the unique flare of using the last name as a middle name.

Joseph was almost a Jude (like he was in our arms, 20minutes old, nameless). And we went with Kolbe because we both liked the saint and it stuck with our last name for a middle name theme. He would've been Gianna Serra (after Junopero Serra) had he been a she.

Gianna was the only one we found out the sex for so we didn't bother discussing names until we knew the gender. Since Gianna had been our girl name for Joseph, it was our first thought for the third baby. Then I fell in love with the name Cora. I had always liked the name. But listening to it used on Downton Abbey, I felt like it would be a lifelong name, so proper. So she was going to be Cora Jane (probably). Then when I was on bedrest in the hospital for a week I had nothing but time on my hands so I thought too much.... and decided maybe I should switch. Then we decided to see her. So when she was born, and all 4.5lbs of her was laid in my arms quickly before they stole her away to the NICU, I asked her "Hi pretty girl, is your name Cora?" and she didn't flinch. Then I asked "Do you want to be known as Gianna?" and she opened her big beautiful eyes and looked straight into mine for the very first time. That sealed it. She chose her name. I don't really remember where Elizabeth came from.
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ColleenFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:17 PM
Yessss, ask and ye shall receive. I know this wasn't posted only because of my comment, but in my sinus-infected head, I'm pretending it is.

Love all your names. No babies for myself and the husband yet, but we're pretty firm on finding names we like for first names and using family names for middle names. We have 5 brothers and zero sisters between the two of us, so there are a lot of guys to honor, which could get interesting.

PS - Can you please get Sebastian to play hockey? Because a hockey player named Bash Patton is almost too much to handle and I love it.
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HollyEliseFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:17 PM
our only tradition is to be sure to give each kiddo a Hawaiian name from my husband's side of the family. we didn't seriously SERIOUSLY talk about names until we found out what we were having with each pregnancy, so with our first we talked girl names and our second, boy names.
Molly is Molly because her grandma's name is Mary (Molly is derived from Mary), it's the name of a character in the books that brought my husband and I together way back when, and we just love it. Her middle names are "Kuhilani", which was her great-grandma on my MIL's side's name (means "prophet of the sky" or similar) and Elise, which is my middle name.
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AmandaFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:19 PM
My boys are Jamie (not quite Jimmy) and Charlie. But we don't name for saints, so it's just regular debate - although the more kids I have the harder it is. They've got an inadvertent theme and have to keep sounding good together. What kills me is that I pick a name and back up for each kid and then, two short years later, whatever other gender name I was considering has been lost. Why do I not like it still?
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MFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:19 PM
As a Margaret Joan (I go by Maggie) and with a brother named John Paul (goes by Jack), we'd like to officially challenge Bash for most Catholic name. I've also got a roommate named Elizabeth Ann (as in Seton), who's got some really good catholic boy names in her brothers.
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SarahFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:19 PM
our dilemma...we've done modern saint (20th century) first name and then family middle name. We are now pregnant with our third and well, I kinda want to buck the "formula" because I like a different name but my husband says we can't.....:) will persistance work?!!?
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:21 PM
We have:
Caleb Thomas
Cecilia Maria Faustina (in heaven)
Dominic Joseph
Baby due in August which will be a surprise. I can generally bring the husband to my side after enough pestering. Thank goodness I stand in the way of his solo naming or we'd have an Ignatius, Melchizedek or another name our little darling can't spell until college.
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Laura PearlFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:21 PM
My best friend growing up was Aggie, which was cute--but Aggie Jo, that's simply adorable! Aggie Mae would be a great nickname, too.

Of those on the list, I'd choose Therese and Luke.

By the way, Bash is the coolest nickname for a boy. He sounds like an NFL player--Bash Patton. My boys would have killed (or at least tackled someone violently) for a moniker like that!
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BrookeFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:21 PM
If we ever have a boy we like Becket. As in st thomas becket bad a** martyr. And for a girl i love Eleanor Amelia.
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Natalie | Mrs. Janney |February 5, 2014 at 5:21 PM
Obviously I like Theodore, since we almost used that name. And I think Bash is the cutest nickname.

I really like the name Paul, but we know too many Pauls. For a girl (because that is what I think you are having) I like Evelyn, Audrey, Charlotte, and Viola.
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KelseyBFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:22 PM
I don't think we had any rhyme or reason behind any of our kids names. We broke all Italian Catholic naming "rules" which pissed off every elder! But I guess all our kids have unique names, with all traditional middle names? Ace Christopher, Pierce Anthony, and Avalon Josephine. My husband was always a "I need to see what they look like" kind of rational but I never got it, so I just picked and said so do they look like a so and so? Ha!
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KatieFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:24 PM
Wait…Simon wanted to name a kid Pat Patton? I'm thankful for Theo's sake that that one got vetoed ;)
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:24 PM
Charlotte and Oliver :)
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billueFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:28 PM
Speaking as a Lillian, if you are looking for a not-extremely-popular name, that's not the way to go. i know a ridiculous number of lilys under age 6. I'm 25 and NEVER knew another lily until a few years ago and now the world is crawling with them. Literally. Best of luck picking!
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BrookeFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:29 PM
And most catholic goes to my great grandma: Clara Angelus. :))
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Emily Q-FFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:29 PM
I also love names & my hubs and exchange them constantly. With no warning-we won't even introduce with a, "What do you think of…?" We just say the name. Bonding at it's finest.

Our kid's names are (in order): Gwenevere Marie, Avalene Ruth, Gideon Elias. We spend an exuberant amount of time deciding on names. And Gideon's is the only one that we don't have nicknamed (so far)-Gwen & Avie are what the girls are called.

I can't wait to hear your #4's name-it's going to be amazing.
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JoannaFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:30 PM
I'm due in late April, and baby names have been probably the easiest thing to decide...I guess we don't fit the norm. If it's a girl, she'll be Lucy Morrison (no middle name). It's not a family name, and I deserve a bad Catholic smack for having to google if there's a Saint Lucy (there is - safe). I just like that it means "light."

If it's a boy, it'll be Thaddeus Morrison V. Yes, the fifth. I don't think I really got a choice in that one (in fact, one of my husband's college roommates said my husband was under a moral obligation to call our first son that).

The hardest part has been thinking of what to call the baby in every day life, if it's a boy. I feel like "Thaddeus" is my husband, and "Thad" is my father in law, so...what do call our child? We've finally settled (I think) on calling him "Jude," since Thaddeus and Jude are the same person in the Bible.
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:31 PM
We have a girl, Audrey Madeline and a boy due this april is gonna be named Hudson Andrew. (Not calling him Drew though) Everyone down here names their boys drew cause of the saints :/ Audrey was really easy for us because we had already talked about the name Audrey and well I dont think everyone in my family is all about Hudson but we really love it! Only hard part with Hudson was coming up with a middle name. We were gonna do Hudson Michael because Michael is my husband middle name but he said he wanted him to have his own name and I was worried that Hudson Michael sounded like a furniture store soooo Hudson Andrew it is :D
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:31 PM
I have two sisters named Emily and Elyse respectively, so I approve of the girl name list. And as a mother of two girls, I hope you get another little girl child because they are so fun. :-)
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Carrie C.February 5, 2014 at 5:33 PM
Funny you bring this up! We are revisiting the name question for this baby (due March 30). She's a girl, and we picked a name and told everyone (we did this with our first two as well) but now I really really REALLY feel like a different name fits better. So I'm trying to convince hubby and he's actually considering it (shock!) but isn't sure he wants to change it. Definitely a reason to keep name secret until baby is born but eh I can't keep a secret and I neeeeeeeed to pick a name as soon as humanly possible or I freak out hahaha!
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chalaynFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:34 PM
Well I don't have much experience naming living things. I did have a hedgehog when I was younger that I named Twinkie Sophia (close to your beloved Sophie!) and a chubby, male hamster I named Hamton (ham + ton). Oh! And I had a Subaru I named Angela Su Baru (too punny for me now). So if you're interested in those names, feel freeeeeeee.

My mom made up my name by merging some names she liked (Layni + Chelan) and then for my middle name (Noelle) she asked everyone's opinion in the hospital room what they thought. (I wrote briefly about it here, but don't feel like you have to click! I'm not trying to be self-promoting! Just putting it out there in case you're bored.)

I'm sure whatever you two come up with will be wonderful. You have a knack for classic, but not overused. I do kind of wish you would have saved Xavier for a first name too though - I love it!
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MarjorieFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:35 PM
I love talking names! We were featured on Swistle's blog with Evangeline which I still can't believe :) Our boys are named after early Christian saints and have J middle names. I already have a perfect matching boy name with a J middle name for our next baby (I'm crazy). Two of the names on your girl list are contenders for our next baby if a girl. I really like French names for a girl. We keep names a surprise just because I'm afraid of having anyone steal the same name (I've heard of that happening).
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AnonymousFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:36 PM
I never realized how much I liked the name Julia until I "met" your Little J. Girl names are so much more fun than boy names. I am a long time away from kids but I LOVE thinking about the names. My all-time girl faves are Charlotte (but whhhhy so popular lately), Claire, Celia, Evelyn, Isabel, Leah, Miranda and Tessa (far & away my #1). I love Gabrielle but not the nn Gabby.
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EvitaFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:36 PM
I love the name Emmanuelle for a girl, as well as Imelda! I am obsessed with the name Henry for a boy, and I also like Tobias, Nicodemus (Nico)
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Hemi21884February 5, 2014 at 5:39 PM
There is no way you could have come up with a better name for Sebastian, mostly because "Bash" is the only way to really describe that little wrecking ball of wonderful. I like Evelyn for a girl, partially because I can imagine Bash saying "Ebbie, no!" and it makes me giggle.
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MARY IN SCOTLAND February 5, 2014 at 5:40 PM
I just love Sebastian's name. Well, because I have a Sebastian! I thought it sounded nerdy chic. Like super smart/geeky yet cool all at the same time. Every time I say his name I just love it. Love it!! But, I guess everyone is following in our footsteps now...

I love the name Lenora. It's my middle name, my aunt's middle name and my great grandmother's middle name. It's totally different without being weird. I've never met another Lenora. You're welcome to the name should you like it. We've been trying for almost 3 yrs for another baby. Nothing. I might not get the chance to pass on such a stellar name!
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KatherineFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:42 PM
For a girl I love the name Avila Rose because it combines both st Therese of Lisieux (known for roses) and St Teresa of Avila. Both amazing saints :)
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Mrs. AmenFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:43 PM
I like your kids' names very much! Mine are Javier Ernesto (after his dad...love Javier, but detest Ernesto, also feel like my MIL got to choose my first baby's name because my DH insisted on a Jr..and that is a whole other story about why that bugs me). Our daughter is Alice Andrea, after St. Alice and St. Andre Bessett. In utero bebe has no name yet, poor thing. Maybe thats why he or she wont get out, i type as i lay in bear position on the floor trying to coax out mr or miss late to the party.
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eksFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:43 PM
This is only my second comment on your blog but I LOOOOOVVVEE talking about baby names so I coudn't resist!!

Ok, you HAVE to go with Jude is this baby is a boy... Jude Patrick Patton is ADORBABLE and sounds so great with Bash & Theo. But maybe too close to Julia? I still love it though.

Also I am not Catholic, but if I was... Augustin(e) all. the. way. Call him Gus. I like Ignatius in theory but it's just too out there as a first name for me... cool middle name though. I'm a big fan of Pope Francis but I don't know if I can get behind a boy first name. Again, cool middle name. Augustine Francis Patton. Done!

We don't have kiddos yet but I drive my husband crrrazy talking about baby names incessantly and I'm super stuck on Nathan for a boy. Also love Henry, David, and Wolf (MIL's maiden name... would only use it as a middle).

Girls are so much harder for me - I am obsessed with Caroline but beyond that, I got nothing. Really hope I have a pack of boys.

Aren't you sorry you asked...!!
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michaela @ m.janeFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:48 PM
i love the baby name talk. such a big decision! i mean, the name they will have for. the. rest. of. their. life??? geez...

and since everyone is sharing...i shall tell my story too.

first born. boy. cash dean. cash because my husband and i agreed on it very early in my pregnancy and that's all there is to it. i feel though, that is pretty monumental in itself. dean because it's a family middle name on both sides.

second born. girl. not so easy... we could not agree on a name. not even kinda agree, except that the middle name would be jane (my mom's middle name and mine). finally, he said he wanted her name to start with M -- to name her after my mother. heart melted. an M name it would be. the day after she was born, her name was decided. merrick jane. or, ricki for short.
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Kelly@http:/inthesheepfold.blogspot.comFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:48 PM
My high school chemistry teacher was Sister Agnes Joseph, and we called he Aggie Joe (but never to he face).
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BrooklynFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:49 PM
I have the same middle name as many family member (and many people in general) Elizabeth...so my daughter got the same. We picked her name out of thin air, but my sister claims I stole it. Our son's middle name is the same as my husbands because I felt it needed meaning like my daughter's. He came up with his name from Eli Manning...not that I could care less about Mr. Manning or football for that matter...I just really likes his name. So that one I did steal!
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HeatherFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:51 PM
I love thinking about baby names! Which is weird because I have no babies, but whatever.

So for Pattonbaby el cuatro, hmm...

Lucille Therese? I love the name Lucille as-is, or Lucy Patton has a great ring to it. Also, Lucy makes me think of Lucille Ball/Lucy Ricardo, and being a Patton, this baby is bound to have a hilarious personality, so...works in many ways!

Anastasia Clare/Claire also seems like a good name -- she could be Anastasia, Ana or Stacy if she wanted.

For boys, what about Leo/Leonard Jacob? I like how Leo Patton sounds.

I also love the name Noel, but I feel like that's becoming a lot more common.

You may notice that I love names that have nickname possibilities -- I guess it's because Heather doesn't easily shorten into a nickname that makes sense!
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CaitlinFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:51 PM
I think you struck the perfect not too popular/not too unique/catholic/not too catholic balance with all of your kids' names! Our rules are a saint for the first name (someone we feel connected to) and a family name for the middle name (we're trying to work with our grandparents' names first). They have to be pretty classic English/Irish/Scottish names because something more ethnic would just sound weird with our last name. Oh, and they can only have one spelling, because I hate that there's a million and one different ways to spell Caitlin. (Mine's the correct spelling, of course, ha ha.)

So, our two daughter's names are...

Claire Camille (named after St. Clare of Assisi and my husband's paternal grandma)
Margaret Joyce (named after St. Margaret of Scotland and my paternal grandma)

We always call her Maggie though. Sometimes I forget that her full name is Margaret!

We didn't find out the gender for Claire, so she would have been Paul Francis if she was a boy. We did find out for Maggie, so we never talked about boys' names with her. But my husband has now decided that Paul Francis is off the table. Not cool, dude. We have no problem agreeing on girls' names, but we do not have the same taste in boys' names at all. Which is why we shall continue to find out the gender so we don't have to argue about them if we don't have to!
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KatherineFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:51 PM
Ok, this is hilarious: http://www.babynamegenie.com/baby-name-generator/
You put in your last name and boy/girl/surprise, and the "genie" makes a name for you. I put in boy and got "Solomon Ryan", no joke.
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AshFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:53 PM
Well, for my kids... Oh wait.

Actually I picked out baby names like every teenage girl but they've definitely evolved over the years. I really love Julia and Juliet and Aurora and Jane... And a bunch of boy names which I won't bore you with but if I have a boy first it's Ashton Jack. Done. Any more boys and I don't know but that's sticking.
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WhitneyFebruary 5, 2014 at 5:59 PM
Human names! I love that. Seriously, it's so easy to picture a name on a baby...but then picturing an adult with that name... I've disregarded some of my favorites after doing that! I like Amos and Silas for a boy. For a girl, I've been hooked on Harper for a long time but it's definitely getting up there on the popular charts. Shoot.
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AmandaFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:03 PM
I love tradition but not the most popular names as well. I don't want people to think I just made up a name.
Our son is Harrison James and we got a lot a flack about calling him Harry, but he is such a Harry. My thing is, if you don't want to know the opinions on your names, don't share until they are born. People are nicer if the name has already been given :)
For boys love love love- Ezra (husbands fav), Logan ( don't think there is a saint :( ) and I'm loving Arthur.
For Girls- Katherine ( will be my first daughter, God willing) Emily, Amelia, Jane, Caroline, Camilla, and Evelyn.
If I can slip in a family name in the mix even better.
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ValerieFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:05 PM
We have an Anna Maria, Dominic Anthony, Gianna Therese, Rita Cecilia, and Paul Xavier. No ideas for baby #6 yet, so I will be sure to read ALL of the comments on this post. Obviously we go with the double saint names, which works out in the kids' favor because we have plenty of "name days" to celebrate with saint feast days. They also like having two patron saints to ask for intercession. My vote for the Patton baby is either a Clare or a Malachi (Chi, like Kai, for short.)
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AriaFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:07 PM
even before the 20 week ultrasound that told us our little dude was indeed a dude, we just sort of knew he was going to be a boy. we had talked about girl names, but the boy names got much more tongue action. we settled on his name- Tobias Edward Carlson- because we thought it was unique, but not so unique that people had never heard of it. i knew i wanted his middle name to be Edward, after my mother's father. also, i have a unique name that people can never pronounce so that was my one caveat- that majority of the world would know how to pronounce our kids names. i love his name because in a funny way it's kind of an old man name, but it works for a little kid. we call him toby, tobes, tobers, the tobes, and yes he answers to all of them.
i'm really excited about the name we picked out for baby #2 (due in june) but we're waiting to announce it until after the little bean debuts :)
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KariFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:08 PM
I really like the types of names you've picked so far. For lack of a better term, they are 'strong' names. I hope that makes sense. Can't wait to hear the new baby's name.
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AmandaFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:10 PM
I've also always loved Wolfgang but tht one got tossed out quickly by everyone I know
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AnnaFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:15 PM
I wanted to name our last baby Blaise so so badly. My husband put his foot down (last name is Bloomfield). If ever I start having girlies again I want Edith, Marjorie (nickname Meg, saint Margaret Mary Alacoque) or Agnes.
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Kaitlin AmedioFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:15 PM
I love love love the names Alexis, and Jamison. I kind of would like to name my kids after people in the family with really unique names such as Jasper, Eleanor, and Genevieve. Sidenote I am in college and should first think about finding a boy friend before I can even get to thinking about baby names, but this is what procrastination looks like! Good luck!
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RosemaryFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:16 PM
We have the same taste in middle names--our first is Michael Augustine (another super Catholic name!) and one of the twins is Dominic Xavier (yeah ... I'd say that's pretty Catholic too!). And I love, love Sebastian but my husband isn't so on board with that one.
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JillFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:18 PM
My mother can never pronounce the name Seth- she always goes heavy on the ZZZ sound. You are right though babies become their names!
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Mrs. SmithFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:20 PM
My little girl (6months today) is Violet Mae because my Grandfather would always meet my Grandmother at the train station with a bunch of violets when they were dating and after he died Mum would always buy cards and gifts with violets on them so they were kind of a theme. Since we decided I've heard of a few and my aunt's former mother in law (who was awful) was a Violet May. I still love it though!
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FranziskaFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:21 PM
Franziska.

or if you want to be American about it, Franchesca

JUST THINK ABOUT IT, NO PRESSURE

just kidding, heaps of pressure.
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TessFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:21 PM
Oooh this is such a fun post! I love this topic and could talk about baby names alllllll the day long.

Frank and I discovered pretty quickly that we have SUPER different taste—which makes it easy in one way since there is such a tiny handful of names we both like that we picked our names very quickly, but is also such a pain since the handful is so tiny that I don't know WHAT we're going to do for future kids.

I have a rule that we can't use any name that's on the list of top 10 baby names for the past year. That rules out his favorite girl names, Olivia and Sophia, and one of my favorites Isabel. The girl names we both like are Catherine, Lydia and Charlotte. I love Beatrice and Margaret (nicknamed Daisy) but can't get him on board... maybe someday.

For boy names, we both like Francisco (nicknamed Frank) and Benedict (Ben). That's it. That's all we can agree on! I keep saying we're in for so much trouble picking a name if we have three boys. I love the names Dominic (Dom is the greatest nickname) and Dante (Dan or Danny for short) but Frank hates them. I also like Sebastian a lot but Frank is eh. He keeps rooting for the name Ignatius and I really hope he's kidding but a big part of me worries he isn't...

I love your friends' list of names for this baby. The first two, Lillian and Theresa, are what my parents named their first two kids—my twin sister and I. Great names, just saying! :)
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ColleenFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:26 PM
One of my favorite families ever had a Sarah Christine, and their next baby, another girl, is Christina Mae. You are totally within your naming rights, I think, to have a Sebastian Xavier, Theo Augustine, and Xavier.... I dunno. Xavier Bosco. I love the name Sebastian, and if I had one would prob want to nickname him Baz, but our parish is st Sebastian, so it feels like the ultimate catholic brown-nosing move to have a child named after the patron of the church youre attending every week. I am cooking number 4 also, and have a Hanna Marie (our last name starts with h so my husband thought to drop Hanna down to just one h), Angele Therese (super French and it fits her so perfectly), and Nadia Renée. Now we have tossed out Maggie (either traditional Margaret or so-cool Magdalene) and I would argue for Ruth as a middle name, and beside Sebastian, Vianney is in the mix, along with Jeanluc (I would still pronounce it anglicanized, like John-Luke, I think). My husband is anti-family names (why!? No idea) but if he wasn't, Michael Anthony, Wilson, and Ellis would be way up on the boy list. And Samuel.
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AnonymousFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:29 PM
I completely related to this post, because I am seriously name *obsessed*...I have a running word document of dozens of names I like (and are trying to convince my husband to like). I think I told you this before, but if Philomena was a boy, her name would have been Sebastian. You had your Sebastian a few months before I gave birth, and I had a little pregnancy-hormone-induced cryfest...not because I knew you that well that it would matter if our kids had the same name, but because I saw it as a sign that Sebastian had become "too popular."

Oh, and I've totally done the "I really like this name, so I am going to google it to see if there is some saint with the name."
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Briana nanimom@outlook.comFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:31 PM
We are stuck in the baby naming game. At least we know to focus on a girl's name, but its still hard. Adele and Sophia are the current runners up. We picked out Audrey Christine and Cyril Alexander before we got married. And Cyprian. Then had to search to come up with Kateri and Malachi. I'm hoping the baby's face will tell us who she is. Which will be any time in the next three weeks! Good luck.
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:31 PM
We have an Oliver Paul and an Evelyn Mary. Oliver was chosen because it seemed like the only boys name that I had not taught (this was important!). Everyone else calls him Ollie, but I will always call him Oliver, because that is my right as his mother. :) Evelyn, oh we just loved this name.. We were SO excited that we got to use the name. We call her Evie, but when she is a grown up, possibly in a Very Important Job wearing a business suit, she can opt for Evelyn if she desires.
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Joanne @ Our ABC LifeFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:32 PM
My/our policy is that the first and middle initial must be the same. I knew that I wanted my kids names to have something unifying about them but I was not about to go Duggar on them either. Plus my hubby's father was an RRK so kinda of a tribute to him? So we have EEK, RRK and MMK so far. I fielded some pretty funny guesses when I was pregs with #3

http://www.ourabclife.com/2013/06/naming-baby-kibbe-3.html

Guess we'll never be having any Kevins or Katherines in our house : )
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:33 PM
Ezra Abraham Patton or Jane Elizabeth Patton would be absolutely adorable to match the absolutely adorable baby that is coming! Yay!
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Rachel SFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:43 PM
My husband and I are definitely "decide-on-a-name-way-before-the-due-date" kind of people. We've always had some difficulty agreeing on names... especially for boys! My husband prefers more traditional names while I tend to like more modern names, without being too trendy. We ended up with a Levi Knox and a Bree Addison. I've never regretted their first names but I have sometimes second guessed their middle names. Maybe because I don't say them as often, sometimes they just sound a little strange to me.
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abbyFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:49 PM
Bring on as many posts about Baby Names as you want-I always love-and I'm not even pregnant lol We kept our two babies genders a surprise but even before we were pregnant we knew if the baby was a boy his name would be Daniel Peter- Daniel because of who he was in the Bible, his character and love and dedication to God and Peter because that is my maiden name and as there are only girls in my family I wanted a way to pass the family name down. And an added bonus of Peter being a Biblical name as well. Also I love the meanings of both the names. I can't like the name if I don't like the meaning...lol If he had been a girl it would have been Ava Rose and both my husband and I are glad he is a boy because we grew out of that name (go fig). For my daughter the name process was MUCH harder! My husband came up with Katherine and I immediately fell in love with it. We hemmed about with the middle name and finally decided on Grace Diane (Grace-as a tribute to our faith: we are saved only by grace and Diane- because both my mom AND mother in law are named Diane..score! except my MIL spells her name "Dianne" and can you guess what the first question was when she was born and we shared the name?? "Oh how great! How is 'Diane' spelled? *facepalm*) If our daughter had been a boy she would have been Jonathan Richard (LOVE the name Jonathan and who he was in the Bible and Richard is a family name in my husbands family). I still love the name :) Anyway...that is probably WAY LONGER than you ever wanted ;) But there it is.
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JoyFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:49 PM
Names are such fun, I guess traditional names with a twist and family names as middle names is our pattern.

Elisabeth Anne-Marie ~ because I have loved the name Beth forever and liked all of the other nickname options which is good since I found out AFTER she was born that Charlie doesn't like the nn Beth. We call her Lisbeth.

Liam Charles ~ because Charlie is a junior (always called by his middle name) and while he didn't want a III, we did want to honor his dad (deceased) and have him have the same initials and Liam was our favorite boy's name starting with an 'L'.

Caitlin Therese Margaret ~ our favorite variation of Catherine and again family names in the middle.
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JonesyFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:54 PM
Jonah is my favorite name. Mainly because it reminds me of Jones and I like that name...ya know...because it's mine. I also love the name Evelyn & Iris. Mainly because there's something precious about a baby with an older name and then they grow into them and rock and have character. I say all this but please take into account I named my dog Doug.
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HeatherFebruary 5, 2014 at 6:55 PM
Had I not been 25 and under at the births of all three of my boys, I think I would have given them names that mean something (like in the movie "Where The Heart Is" which, if you haven't seen it, you should). As it turns out I was young and shallow and went for trendy names. Baby #1 was a mystery. I wanted a girl SO bad since I was the only girl in our family of five kids. I would have named her Ashley Elizabeth. Hello, 1986 and living in Georgia so having to do a whole Gone With The Wind theme! My husband was a junior and his father had been killed in Vietnam so my first son should REALLY have been named Robert Ned. At about six months pregnant I burst into tears one night and said, "I can't name my baby NED" because, you know, it wasn't cool. Let me re-emphasize that I was a very young mother. Instead I named him Robert Ryan - after Ryan's Hope, the soap opera. Instead of a war hero. So there was that. Baby number two, had he been a girl would have been Alyssa Ray. My mom's name is Norma Ray (like the movie, sort of but a lot of years before that). Alyssa because it was 1990, you know, Alyssa Milano. Another win for adolescent motherhood. We found out at 8 months preggo after a high risk, very scary pregnancy where I was on bedrest from 26 weeks that he was a boy. I wanted to name him Nathaniel Scott for my friend Scott and call him Nathan because we liked that name. I also really liked Cody but my best friend Mary was going to name her son that whenever they had a baby so I didn't want to steal it. We saw the movie Parenthood (again with the movie theme) and there was a kid named Justin so we decided to go with Justin as a first name and sneak Cody in as a middle name. At age three little Justin announced that he wanted to be called Cody. And so he was. Along with 2/3 of the other little boys his age. Post script to that story... my friend Mary had a baby ten years after I had MY Cody and they named him... Nathan. Baby number three was also a high risk bed ridden pregnancy and we found out about halfway through that he was another boy. HAD he been a girl he would have been Caylen Brooke. Just because it was pretty. Instead we decided to give him a name with went with his brother's name... so we named him Austin Clay. I have a Ryan, Cody and and Austin. Everyone has called Ryan "BooBoo" his whole life - and he's now 27. Cody is Codes. Austin has always been Auggie. Or Auggie Doodle. Or Doodle Bug. Because we live in the south. And since this isn't long enough... my brother's second baby was a gender surprise at birth. They decided to name him/her James either way after daddy and granddaddy and call him/her Jamie. So my niece is Amanda James who we all call Jamie- or Jay. Her big sister is Sarabeth Leah after two of her great-grandmothers. Names that mean something. We mostly call her Bethy. My two name pet peeves are overly trendy names (lesson learned from Cody) and last names as first names UNLESS they're a family name, which is why my mom was Norma Ray. Fun topic!
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ColleenFebruary 5, 2014 at 7:11 PM
We are a family of girls over here : Samantha Grace, Juliana Sophia and Miriam Ruth. My hubby wanted each to have a strong middle name with loads of meaning. Grace - easy to understand, Sophia means wisdom and Ruth means mercy.
We love to chat about baby names and had Oliver on the list for over 4 years bc before I knew I was pregnant with Juliana, I had a dream that I had a son names Oliver. We loved it and still do but since we never-ever-ever tell our names or possibilities, my bro and his wife just went and named my nephew Oliver a few months ago! Of all the names in the world!! (Still bitter)...it's becoming increasingly popular tho...check into it.
Also, any and all "Lil" names are super popular these days.
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 7:22 PM
Jonathan was named for King David's best friend in the bible. We thought we would name him Jonathan David but Jerry didn't want to use any name that was already in the family. With six brothers and a total of 56 first cousins that was quite the challenge. SO we ended up with Jonathan Douglas which then copied his fathers initials. Miss Courtney was almost Grace. But since I named Jonathan, Jerry got to name Baby #2. He chose Courtney from a list of 15 I liked (hello 1992). Her middle name comes from my paternal grandmother, Elizabeth. It's funny how each of them have grown into their names. We named the babies we lost Simon Joseph and Oliver Hunter, both a combo of family names form their grandfathers and great-grandfathers. I love the art of choosing a baby name. My hubby hated it. Yet another difference between men and woman I guess. I can't wait to hear what you chose come spring.I know it's going to be a good one.
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biancefamilyFebruary 5, 2014 at 7:23 PM
Baby names are sooo hard! My husband and I have such a hard time agreeing, We do agree we like classic, but not popular names. After our first, her name is Ava, we realized we should check the top names list bc we cant go anywhere without hearing her name. We like using family names but my husbands are too italian and mine are too country. So far we have an Ava, Monroe ( my dads middle name), Ellanor (Husbands aunt, but changed the spelling) Adelaide ( saint day was around her conception, TMI!) and Fulton (after the archbishop).

I love Ava's name, but I do regret not having real meaning behind her name. I love all your kids names! I'm sure you will pick a great one.
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AnonymousFebruary 5, 2014 at 7:24 PM
Growing up with the name Shirley I often heard "That's my Grandma's name too!". I have always loved my name and will probably name my daughter Shirley Ann too, unless its a boy then he would be Sherlock Danger (or Blake Henry).
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Sherry L.February 5, 2014 at 7:43 PM
Elaborating on Bash's suggestion, Santiago. Santi for short? I also love the name James for a girl, she would have to have tough skin though :)
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TeresaFebruary 5, 2014 at 7:49 PM
I love that you use saint names! The saint of the day for my birthday is Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, which was totally unplanned!
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theresa EHFebruary 5, 2014 at 7:51 PM
I like the name "Gideon" for a boy. Gabriella for a girl.
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AnneFebruary 5, 2014 at 7:52 PM
I have a Samuel Emery. Samuel was my husband's paternal grandpa, and Emery was my paternal grandpa (and my dad's middle name). We waited for the middle name choice until we had to fill out the forms at the hospital. It was almost Osiris. (gag!) We had no girl name, so we were lucky he came out a boy! Closest we could agree on was Amelia.

For Baby 2.0: I like Clara, Hannah and Suzannah (versions of Channa and Zuzanna from my slovak grands & great grands). Also James, William, Alastair, Adam. I was stuck on Joshua for a while. Husband likes Osiris, Isis, Eurydice. He doesn't get to pick anymore....We kinda agree on Ezra. And Atlas for a middle name b/c I just like it.
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sarahFebruary 5, 2014 at 7:57 PM
We have Silas Young and Sawyer Judson. If a girl had come, she would have been Anslie Grey. Kinda sad she didn't in some ways, because I love that name.
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J & AFebruary 5, 2014 at 7:58 PM
We have a Faith Cecilia, a Bennett Luke, a Maya Evangeline (hubby is from Finland and Maijja is Finnish for Mary...yeah, no way anyone in the midwest is pronouncing that correctly so we Minnesota-ized it), and our next will either be Xavier Jude or Norah Felicity. LOVE the stories behind your kids' names!!! :-)
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KellyFebruary 5, 2014 at 8:04 PM
I'm such a sucker for baby names. My husband's rule is it has to be Irish to go with our last name, and my rule is that they have to have a longer given name but then a nickname of sorts which is the name we call them. Our first Aurora Elise fit that bill perfectly. We call her Rori. Our second avoided all the rules. We were going to go with Callaghan (Patrick, or James) and call him Cal. But then I found out Callaghan meant "strife" and I'm totally superstitious about name meanings. I were going to go with Callahan which is of the saintly variety, but I felt like I was just cheating. Game day decision landed him with the name Judah Remington and we call him Judah. It literally came out of thin air - both names together. We did take long walks through old graveyards trying to come up with a name - super fun.
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 8:08 PM
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 8:11 PM

Marie BokFebruary 5, 2014 at 7:08 PM

I'm not sure you'll read the 871st comment, but we knew two things: it was a girl and what her middle name would be. Since my mom emigrated and didn't realize you could sign both of your middle names on the "middle name" line on the naturalization documents, she essentially dropped her great-aunt's name Adrienne (pronounced by her fam as "add-reee-ann" carefully rolling the R...of which I can never do.) I was six months along, driving myself crazy with needing a name before the hospital trip, watching PBS and heard a lady singing about a girl named Maggie. I wish I knew now who it was that was singing! Anywhooo since she would be the first girl born into her dad's family in 83 years, and they were very Irish, Maggie was IT -- to the point I yelled throughout our 800 square feet apartment/hole "That's it!" Her name is actually Margaret which becomes a mouthful when lecturing her.
So as a side note to that, my good friend April (who was born in April and please don't do that to her if it's a girl) liked Olivia but wanted something different and named her cherub Alivia. I'm fairly certain there is not a St. Alivia however I love love love that they did that and that her nickname is Livey.
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LBFebruary 5, 2014 at 8:12 PM
Have Julia name the babe. That would be THE BEST.

Also we shared our names and I still know my mom doesn't like Tucker's name which can be hard but we also knew we'd regret it if we didn't name him that.
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BmarFebruary 5, 2014 at 8:21 PM
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JenaFebruary 5, 2014 at 8:22 PM
We have a Grayson + my maiden name for our two year old, and baby brother will probably be Bennett (Family name, derivative of Benedict-*catholic requirement*-and means "little blessed one") + James. I love thinking of baby names, but not as much when you have to pick one for an actual person (i.e. when I'm pregnant??). Probably because my husband vetoes so many! If we were having a girl, I think it would be a Mary Elizabeth Ann (to hyphenate or not...?), Anna Catherine, or Emmeline/Emmaline/Emmalynn.

Babynamewizard.com is also a super fun website with too many ways analyze names. Plus, they have this "brother/sister" naming tool, which is spookily accurate!
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 8:24 PM
I am not Catholic but have always liked Catholic-sounding names, particularly for boys. Top of my list are Dominic, Patrick, and Joseph. I also really love Bridget.
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 8:24 PM
I am not Catholic but have always liked Catholic-sounding names, particularly for boys. Top of my list are Dominic, Patrick, and Joseph. I also really love Bridget.
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RachelFebruary 5, 2014 at 8:24 PM
I love the name Vivienne! When I had my first we were almost certain she'd be Jillian Kate, but hadn't decided officially and never had called her that name or told anyone. Then as I was pushing, my doctor asked what we were going to call this baby and my husband said "Jillian." So that decision was made. When I had my second we were pretty set on Mattie but hadn't chosen a middle name. Right after I had her my sister texted me and said "Claire (my sister's middle name) is an excellent middle name, and remember my birthday is tomorrow." So she became Mattie Claire. I've loved both girls' names, even though in the end I didn't have much say. :) Can't wait to hear Baby #4's name!
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CTFebruary 5, 2014 at 8:43 PM
Kateri - Native American turned catholic saint.
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BethFebruary 5, 2014 at 8:53 PM
I like Maximillian (to go as Max) and some version of Amelia/Emily Clare. I can't think of anything cuter than having a Sebastian and a Maximillian...precious!!
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Truly MamaFebruary 5, 2014 at 8:58 PM
Even though we aren't even close to pregnant...Luke, Liam, and Zander are favorites of my husband and I! His family is all "L"'s and my family isn't anything so we want to have a mix (I think). Can't wait to see what y'all choose for Baby Patton!
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JennaFebruary 5, 2014 at 9:05 PM
A family of 10 I babysat for had:
Joseph (Joe)
Clare
Augustine (Gus)
Elizabeth (Liz)
Samuel (Sam)
Benedict (Ben)
Maximillian (Max)
Mary
Veronica (V)
Matthias (Mater)
Peter
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AimeeFebruary 5, 2014 at 9:08 PM
You are speaking my language with this post! I love talking about names and hearing people's stories behind their names and their kids names.
Rob and I went the uber traditional route with our gang, although we didn't start out that way intentionally. We knew we had to have a patron saint in there, and Rob's from Scotland and it is verrrry traditional to have a family name somewhere in your child's name. He jokes that that's why there are only 4 names in all of Scotland.

#1 - Mary Catherine, called Mollie. Mary is after the Blessed Mother and my mother and grandmother, and Catherine is my middle name. Mollie is an ancient nickname for Mary in Scotland, but no one under 60 has ever seemed to hear of it. So many questions about why we call her Mollie when her name is Mary!
#2 - Simon John. Simon is my maiden name, plus it is just a cool name. :) John is after Rob's dad.
#3 - Anne Amelia. Anne was Rob's grandmother's name, and Amelia was also Rob's idea. he wanted to give her a name that was like mine but different enough to be her own.
#4 - James Robert, called Jim. James is a form of the surname Jamieson, which was Rob's grandmother's maiden name. We would have gone with Jamieson itself, but my sister in law beat us to it by a year. And Robert is obviously after Rob. He nicknamed himself Jim. Never Jimmy, just Jim. I am glad that he didn't get fancy and go with Jim Bob.
#5 - Elizabeth Claire, called Bess. This is where we broke with our tradition a tiny bit. There is no one named Elizabeth or Claire in our families, we just loved those names and those saints. I wanted to call her Betsy, and I was completely set on that until they laid her in my arms and I said "There's my sweet Bess." Surprised the heck out of myself and Rob. Of course, she has the cutest little lisp, so when she says her name everyone thinks she is saying "Beth." It's kind of like watching "Who's on First" when she is correcting people.
#6 - Margaret Eileen, called Maisie. Margaret is Rob's mom's name and Eileen is the name of his beloved godmother, who passed away before Maisie was born. We were set on Margaret for a long time (and Maisie is a pretty normal nickname for Margaret in the UK), but it wasn't until she was born that we picked Eileen. Rob cried the first few times he said her name out loud. It was so sweet.
#7 - Joseph Jude, called Joe. Joseph is my father's middle name and Jude was the saint I felt absolutely certain should watch over him. It was pretty simple naming him.

Rob and I like to joke that when we introduce our daughters it sounds like we are presenting princesses at court: Mary, Anne, Elizabeth, and Margaret. And the boys sound like we are introducing all of Jesus' cousins: Simon, James, and Joseph.

Have fun with the name-choosing! Can't wait to hear the final decision!
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CelesteFebruary 5, 2014 at 9:20 PM
We vacillated until the last minute and finally decided on Seth Elias. Now he's 4. He must approve because he names every stuffed animal and lego man after himself. So it's a good one. :) Our upcoming name of choice is Ezra (shh!), so you must have good taste.
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AnonymousFebruary 5, 2014 at 9:22 PM
This is too fun!

Our first - Charles Alexander. Middle names of our dads and awesome saints FTW. Charlie is what he goes by and is such a cute nickname for a boy that remains manly enough to keep around later.

Our second - Genevieve Annette. Names of our maternal grandmothers and also awesome saints, again. I really liked Claire at the time but we knew we'd be using Annette as the middle name and... Claire Annette? No. Can I tell you I had not met any Genevieves at all and now I've seen it suggested a bunch in the comments and Jenny of Mama Needs Coffee now has a Genevieve. Maybe I was ahead of some trend I was not aware of? Anyway, it is such a great name. On any given day she could be G, Vivi, Genny (I hate how that looks spelled), or Vieve.

Our third - Leo Anthony. No family names did we like enough/could agree on so we went with just saints and I love it. The fact that we have a super Italian sounding last name and live outside of Philly.... well... no one will mess with his sister at least. He'll see to that.

If we ever have #4... I'm keep this post bookmarked.
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Sydney McFearlessFebruary 5, 2014 at 9:25 PM
All your kids' names are incredibly dignified, so I'd say you've set the bar for the rest of the Campers. I like Charlotte and Jude from the list that you shared, but I'm pretty sure I'll love whatever you guys pick!

Here is the link to the post where I explained how we pick our new little bebe's name:
http://sydneymcfearless.blogspot.com/2014/02/caleb-william-birth-story-part-3.html. (And if you want to read the rest of the birth story, you'll be able to get there from that post! I know how you like birth stories.) As you will read, ours was finalized in the delivery zone as well!

Can't wait til #4 debuts!
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LilyFebruary 5, 2014 at 9:32 PM
Like everyone above, I love name posts!! Baby names are my absolute fav. (So much so I will abbreviate words out of excitement!) if I could make a living naming babies I would! We (not really, just I) are always discussing baby names in our house, even though we only have two tiny humans and no more currently on the way.

Our boys are: Easton John- Easton had that right sound to it for us, unique but not impossible to spell, masculine and fresh & John is after my dad. We also have: Hudson William- Hudson hit all the right notes like Easton did, but also sounded great with Easton, William is my husbands uncles name whom he is close with. We call our Hudson Huddy as a nickname.

Easton was almost a Sebastian and Hudson almost a Theodore with the nickname teddy. we have yet to find out the sex of our kiddos so we always go in with a boy front runner and girl front runner (for Easton it was Hadley and Hudson's is still a contender for future girls so we keep it under lock and key!) Vivienne will always top my list for girls, along with Marit and Cleo. For boys I love Ezra, Everett and Atlas. Every naming suggestion I have is usually shot down immediately by josh, but I wear on him until he agrees to at least one!

Good luck! Your names (so far) are awesome, so we know baby 4 will have a great name!
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KrisFebruary 5, 2014 at 9:33 PM
You're totally smart not to tell anyone before hand. Because once the baby is born and named, everyone loves it regardless and no one even thinks about whether they like the name or not because now it's a real live person that they love. So here's my (as promised) boring name story. My husband is a Jr., so his Dad is Jim (James) and he's Jim (James) and when I was pregnant with our first he was insisting on James III for a boy. And I was equally insisting on NOT James III for a boy. So there we were. My favorite girl name of all time was Katherine Suzanne, so that one was a given (although now I would be partial to Lily Margaret, but there you go). Finally, after he kept not budging on the boy name, I asked him WHY he was being so stubborn. Turns out, his big issue was that all the men in his family have the same initials - JMC - and he wanted the baby, if it was a boy, to have the same initials. So I said fine, as long as it's not James. So that's what I had to work with. Four boys later......! They are all JMC - with the "M" names being family names from my side of the family. And you've got Joshua Merrell, Jordan McGregor, Joel Montgomery and Jameson Miller. And I love all your names - so unique and a perfect fit for each of them!!
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Tim and SarahFebruary 5, 2014 at 9:34 PM
I love to talk about baby names too! Could you somehow please turn this into a linkup!!??!?! so I can justify writing our baby names stories up? And I can read everyone else's too!
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ShannonFebruary 5, 2014 at 9:35 PM
I really like Avery.
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 9:51 PM
I LOVE LOVE nicknames. I wish they just came out already assigned so I could use them for always. Love that you call your guy Bash. Super cute. I love the name game too--so much fun and potential! We went more traditional Irish/Gaelic with our kids, which is funny cause we're not Irish. Or Gaelic. I love Ava too!! Good luck!
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KatieFebruary 5, 2014 at 9:59 PM
Noah is my favorite boys name (and has been since well before I was married). I was still wanting to use it if we had a boy, until thankfully my mom pointed out that with my last name Vale that would make him noah vale (no avail?!?!) thank goodness for my mom because I clearly would've subjected my child to that without even knowing.
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KateFebruary 5, 2014 at 10:06 PM
I like your names, they carefully fit a baby and an adult. Which is what we are all aiming at for our kids....adulthood, right?
We didn't name our son until after he was born and won't name this fetus until he is born. I just feel like I have to meet them first to give them a name. How can I name someone without meeting them first?
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Tales of a young mammaFebruary 5, 2014 at 10:13 PM
I'm excited to read all of these! We decided early on to go with Swedish names (ya know, because of the whole growing up in Sweden thaaang) and we didn't decide for sure about Jasper till after he was born, it was between Jasper, Magnus and Axel. Both of those are probably in the running if we are ever blessed with another boy. His middle name, Andrew is Drew's name (obviously) and since Jasper was taking my last name I thought it was only fair he got his dad's name in there too. We continued the Swdish name with Tindra, and decided to continue the family thing for middle name, and since both of my grandmothers died the year before she was born I wanted both of my grandmothers in her name so her full name is Tindra Helene Birgit. We were also considering Tilda and Astrid for her first name, we really liked Tilda (Tilly as a nickname) but then I read that Matilda was making a comeback so that swayed me towards Tindra. Also, a few weeks before when we were still trying to decide between our top three choices and we were at Ikea and Jasper picked up a candle and said "mom lets bring this one home" and I picked it up and on the side of the candle it said Tindra which felt like a sign :) I was super annoyed when Twilight became popular because for the next two years anytime a younger woman heard his name she would automatically ask if I liked Twilight.. Of those you listed I love Ezra and Jonas! And Eva
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AmandaFebruary 5, 2014 at 10:28 PM
I love your names. I am a huge fan of Sebastian. I have always love it. Baby names were one of it biggest disagreements between my husband and I. We ended up going with Emersyn Kinzie for my daughter. We found Emersyn in the Catholic Sun, the did a story on a little girl being baptized and both loved it. Kinzie was from me wanting some of my Irish heritage for her since my husband got the Italian with the last name. I love the name because it is not common at all. My son is Logan Samuel. I loved Logan when we were pregnant with Emersyn but he wasn't buying into it. It came down to X-Men being on TV when we first found out I was pregnant again to convince him. Wolverine's name is Logan so he agreed with it. Samuel was never a choice. My dad died when I was 3 and I always knew my first son would have that middle name.
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UnknownFebruary 5, 2014 at 10:34 PM
No kids yet but i am in love with the name Emerson Julia (call her emmie) for a girl. I also love Kieran Elizabeth or Evelyn Lucy (and call her Evie or Elynn) for girl names.

As for boys, I love Theo, which you have already. what about Cade Daniel or Gregory Martin (call him Greg)?
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MorganFebruary 5, 2014 at 10:36 PM
HA! This is great :) Of our list, I'd have to say that my favs are Ava, Iris, and Gabrielle (called Brie)...oh, and Jonah, Avery, and Amos.

And I love knowing the reasons behind names! No matter what y'all choose, it's bound to be perfect for the little miss or mister!

And, great job on giving Kiley a shout out...pretty sure she nearly had a heart attack ;)
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JenFebruary 5, 2014 at 11:29 PM
My hubby is the pickiest person ever when it comes to baby names. He likes the modern names while I like more traditional names…so my compromise (because seriously, he is so stubborn about names) is that our middle names are saints. I love all of your babies' names! Here are mine…

Levi Anthony (in heaven) - St. Anthony is my husband's patron saint
Landon Gerard - after losing our first at 5 months we asked St. Gerard for some serious intercession and I know he was a big part in bringing our second son into the world!
Chase Michael (in utero) - the devil is totally on my back this time around (high-risk pregnancy + fear of losing another baby) so St. Michael is our man…and my brother Michael will be the godfather so it's almost too perfect :)

My faves from the list you posted are Lillian and Oliver! I like a lot of the other ones but these fit with your current names rather well, in my opinion ;)
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JennyFebruary 5, 2014 at 11:29 PM
Stay strong and classic, Grace. Or at least just promise not to run with Brady. Or anything more easily recognizable as the name of a river.
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AllisonFebruary 5, 2014 at 11:32 PM
I had a long list of baby names before I was married. Then I got a husband and learned that husbands love to veto. We had Benjamin picked out for our first and picked his middle name in the delivery room too..Matthew after my husband. Matt really wanted to give Samuel the first name of Patrick but I just can't have a son named Pat so we used it as his middle name. I love that picture of you and Julia. We like to keep our names secret until the babies arrive because it drives me a little crazy to have family or friend input. They can name their own kids. My niece wanted to name Ben Santa too.
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AliFebruary 5, 2014 at 11:40 PM
When we got married my husband and I made a list of our favourite baby names, then put it away for two years until we were actually expecting, and when we looked at it again we didn't like 90% of the names on the list.

Sebastian was one of my top choices for our firstborn, so I approve of your choice in names!

We totally recycled our girl name after our first was a boy, since it was one of the only names we could agree on, and it took so long to choose!
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Katrina RoseFebruary 5, 2014 at 11:54 PM
You think you are bad Catholics? Ha, I don't remember if I told you that at Conor's baptism, the priest mentioned that he had looked up if there was a St. Conor. He found a Blessed Conor, and asked us if we knew ... ummm, nope! Since his middle name is Daniel after Chris' dad, we figured he was covered since there are a bunch. And then Ryan! Poor Ryan Donald's (Ryan is Chris' great-grandma's maiden name (but really, we just liked it to be honest) and middle name comes from my grandpa and dad) only saint connection comes from St. Donald, and when you look him up it says, "There is not much known about St. Donald."

I used to love Owen and wanted to save it for one of our younger boys, but now it is too popular. We have had our girl names for a while so maybe I should gestate one so we can use them! Come on, Elise Anne.

Oh and I might be the only one who had a dream/baby-naming nightmare in which she was crying because she was afraid her mother-in-law was going to use one of our girl names.
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MdcermottFebruary 6, 2014 at 12:05 AM
Kodi Rylan
Kole Griffin
& Sarina Kaylene
we couldn't agree on our daughters name and I loved this from early on- so on the way to the hospital I just put my foot down :)
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JenFebruary 6, 2014 at 12:36 AM
Good post! Agreeing on names was not an easy task in our house either. I can relate to the difficulty of trying to strike the balance between not super common and not too far afield. We've found ourselves praying for inspiration on what they should be called.

Our born children are:
Lydia Virginia - Our mothers' first names and Lydia is the first female convert to Christianity mentioned in the book of Acts.
Pia Joy - Named for St Pio and the Blessed Mother (O Pia - O Loving - a title given to the Blessed Mother in the Salve Regina)
Demetrio Paul (He's a fourth so really no choosing his name. My father-in-law would have been so sad had the family naming tradition stopped with my husband.)

Our unborn children lost to miscarriage:
Mary
Joseph
Peter
We felt that they deserved names even though we couldn't meet them at their births like we did with our other children. We hope to meet them some day in the afterlife.
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SRCarpeallanaFebruary 6, 2014 at 7:48 AM
Grace your post sparked a midnight convo with my husband aaaallll about names for future babes. Names kill me and I've had to grown into both the names of my boys, even though they were both my ideas. Xavier I learned to love pretty fast but truth be told I'm still growing into Joaquin (you are right about not mentioning name choices to family or friends..I made the mistake of asking opinions and I still even to this very day hear them, and there not all positive!). I love love love aaallll of your babies' names. I can't wait to hear what lucky number 4 will be named!
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Sister SaraFebruary 6, 2014 at 8:36 AM
My children: Abigail Marie, Katherine Marie, Jacob Lee, and Kyle Joesph. My husband named 1 and 3 I named 2 and 4 - of course we had a short list to choose from that we each agreed on and then we got to pick after delivery (we never knew the sex of the baby before delivery) The girls had to have Marie as their middle name because every female in my immediate family has Marie in her name (13 of us).
We like "normal" names that are spelled traditionally. I loved the name Luella and Lucy buy my sister was quick to shut them both down.... And my mother wanted me to name a boy Harry.... and I quickly shut her down when I reminded her what the locker room may be like for our child with that name......

The names we didn't use that are free for the the taking...(like they are so original you couldn't have thought of them yourself....)
Emily
Allison
Annie

Josh
Nathan
Nicholas

Good luck with deciding on "thee" name!! It always drives me nuts until we decide and I spend too much time worrying about it, so always happy to have it done!! :-)
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k8teFebruary 6, 2014 at 8:40 AM
i love talking about baby names...i'm a nameberry junkie. i love all 3 of your kids names, especially bash...i keep trying to convince tim our first son should be sebastian, but so far no luck ;) for patton #4 i suggest: abraham, noah, arthur or phillip (do you watch shameless? i love that they call him "lip") for a boy. for a girl i say bernadette, amelia, helena (lainey), hannah, or penelope. can't wait to hear what you pick!
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annFFebruary 6, 2014 at 9:09 AM
We do saint names, or made up variations of saint names! We loved St Maximillian Kolbe, but didn't want to do Maximillian, which inevitably becomes "Max,"... So we named our son Maxson, as in son-of-Max, son of the saint, is that weird? He may end up Max anyway, but we ended up loving our made up Saint-ish name!
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ChasingFebruary 6, 2014 at 9:14 AM
I think this is my first comment on your blog, but I have been reading for ages! We have a Nicholas Augustine and a Dominic Gregory.
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fivejonesroadFebruary 6, 2014 at 9:39 AM
I can totally relate to the "don't tell anyone until the baby is born" situation. My husband and I wanted to name our first baby (a girl) Mabel. Feedback included: "that's a cows name", "you can call her that but I never will", "are you sure?", "mhmmm" in our first-time parent fragile state we decided we couldn't name her that and she ended up being baby Muhl for the first week of her life. I cannot even tell you how much of a failure I felt when the doctor held her up and said "Here she is…what's her name" and Ryan and I just stared blankly at each other…followed by "Ok, well, let's get a picture" Uh, we forgot the camera. We ended up calling her Lilah Frances after many Facebook threats that the baby MUST have a name, and it's perfect for her. With our second (a boy) it was much easier. I suggested Vaughn and Ryan said "yup". We did however keep it a secret until he was born for fear of criticism swaying us against it. We could't decide on a middle name (Ryan or Henning) so we gave him both. It was very well received, and we decided "you know what? Who cares what other people think. If we have another girl she WILL be Mabel" That is, until my sister-in-law named her pet pig Mabel. Whomp. Whomp.
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KateFebruary 6, 2014 at 10:02 AM
This post and all these comments have made my whole year!! We're expecting #6 after 5 boys; we already have:
Th0mas R0blee -- Thomas was my fil's name who died when my husband was small, so it was a no-brainer; R0blee was my paternal grandfather's name, chosen to honor my dad, He only goes by Th0mas, except with my parents and littlest brothers who often call him Tommy.
Gabr!el Stephen – Gabr!el was one of my lifetime favorite names, but it took some convincing for my husband. Now he loves it, and neither of us can see our Gabe as anything but (though he's recently started introducing himself as Gabr!el and writing Gabr!el on his school papers ... fine by me!). Stephen is my husband's name.
Ignatius Marie -- this is the name we gave the baby we miscarried right after my husband decided to convert to Catholicism. He'd been most convinced by St. Ignatius of Antioch's writings on the Eucharist, and had decided to take Ignatius as his Confirmation name; Marie is for Our Lady. My toddler recently said "Natey" when trying to pronounce it, and I'm blown away by how cute Nate/Natey is as a nickname for Ignatius.
J0hn D0minic -- was going to be Oliver Joseph until I was about six months pregnant, when we switched to J0hn D0minic (my husband's grandfather's full name). He mostly goes by Johnny at home, John at school, and J0hn D0minic when I'm introducing him to someone.
Xav!er Joseph -- my grandfather was David Xav!er, and one of my brother's middle names is Xav!er, so it was on my list for a long time. My husband (surprisingly, as he tends to be a much more timid namer than me) loved it. Joseph was my fil's Confirmation name that he took as his legal middle name, which was perfect as I had a very strong feeling all throughout my pregnancy that St. Joseph was close by. Our Xav!er goes by Xav3y or Xav3 almost exclusively, though now that he's started school he often gets called Xav!er. We pronounce it ex-ZAY-vyer, as that's the way my grandfather pronounced his name, but it doesn't bother me when people say ZAY-vyer. (But don't try to tell me ex-ZAY-vyer isn't a valid pronunciation! Ooh that burns me up!) (To further add to the confusion though, we do pronounce Xav3 and Xav3y as Zave and Zavey.)
Thadd3us Philip -- We just liked the name Thadd3us, but had a hard time figuring out a nickname for it (we didn’t care for Thad or Teddy) until I saw a little boy at school -- the only other Thadd3us we know -- being called "T@ddy" by his teacher and my heart melted. Such a cute nickname! So Thaddeus nickname T@ddy he was. Philip is for my brother-in-law, who will likely not have his own children.
For baby #6 we're considering Augustine again, but dropping the -e -- August!n -- for pronunciation reasons. I've been trying to convince my husband of Joach!m for years. Charl3s is another option (my mil is Carol). Leo was top of our list for a while, but my brother and his wife named their son Leo last spring, so we've deleted it for now. And our girl name has remained the same through all our pregnancies: Sus@nna. My mom is Susanne and her mom was Anna, so it was a perfect choice. Her middle name will be a Marian name.
Grace, I love your kids' names! First and middles, great combos all.
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UnknownFebruary 6, 2014 at 10:10 AM
My husband likes to suggest the most uber Catholic names he can come up with. Like, "lets work our way through the Roman Canon! Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius..." Or, a couple days ago, "if we have twins, can we name them Benedict and Scolastica?" I'm not sure what will happen when I'm actually pregnant (newlyweds; no baby blessings yet).
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JordanFebruary 6, 2014 at 10:17 AM
My husband and I had a baby girl 3 weeks ago and named her Charlotte Josephine. We call her Charlie, however. It occasionally morphs to Chuck when the mood strikes. :)
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KimberlyFebruary 6, 2014 at 10:24 AM
Before I was married I was given the idea to have all my girl's middle names be a different name for Mother Mary (Lily, Rose, Grace....) and I loved that idea. But, then I got a husband and he wasn't as excited about it. My next thought was my first girl's middle name would be Anne, as my confirmation saint is St Anne, but wouldn't you know it...there's an Anne in my husband's family that rubs everyone the wrong way.

Reese Annalee is what we decided on. Reese was the name of a little girl sitting behind us in Mass one day and we both loved it. We also liked the traditional spelling, Rhyse, but I know she would have been called "rice" all her life, and I couldn't subject her to that. Annalee is a combination of St Anne and my husband's grandmother's name which was Tommie Lee. Now, of course, we can't imagine her being anything other than our little Reese-a-roo.

We never decided on a boys name, but the four left in the running were Owen, Olsen, Emory, and Brenden, with the middle name of Joseph.

Love all these name ideas! I might even save this post so I can come back for inspiration!
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SallyFebruary 6, 2014 at 10:26 AM
Love thinking about baby names. And I loooovve "Bash".......but if I ever had another boy and wanted to name him Bash......would Mace (my son) & Bash sound a little too super hero/BA?? I mean.....I feel like with those names they could just DESTROY anyone/thing?? Anyway, can't wait to see what you name #4!
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UnknownFebruary 6, 2014 at 10:43 AM
So many comments I don't know if I should even add my 2 cents! Looks like our name preferences line up...We also have a Theodore and I'm secretly hoping for a girl next so I can use Madeleine (St. Madeleine Sophie..). My husband loves my name and has been asking for an Evelyn Jr. (umm, no?) or to use my sister's name: Veronica. I love the name, but maybe we'll shorten it to cut down the redundancy? Vera?

I never knew how difficult names were until name-ing! Have fun! Looking forward to hear what you choose:)
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SarahFebruary 6, 2014 at 10:51 AM
I love talking/thinking/dreaming about baby names! I had names picked out when I was about 15 but unfortunately my husband HATES them so I'll probably never get to use them!

I have a daughter and her name is Annelise... I am of course biased but I love it! it's unique without being too out there. Not sure that there was a a Saint Annelise though! :)
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Patty HoweFebruary 6, 2014 at 11:31 AM
When my husband and I started our family(we had 2 girls) if I had a boy he would have been called Asher Scott. Asher for my Dad and Granddad, Scott for my husband. We had instead, Tracy LaVon(Tracy for my grandma,LaVon is a family name.) and Rebecca Diane,because it suits her. Tracy had a girl, Octavia LaVon, and Becky had a bo, Asher Scott. When she told me what she was going to call him I was surprised. because I never told her about wanting to use that name 30 years before.
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cathyl63February 6, 2014 at 11:38 AM
Ben Andrew - husband picked it and I liked it. Andrew was father-in-law's first name. (Didn't want Benjamin because we knew we would call him Ben and wanted to keep it simple)
Kyle Thomas Jeffrey - Kyle because we just liked it, Thomas after my husband's middle name and Jeffrey because his older brother suggested it, so we put it in there.
Alex Charles - had to keep it simple, no Alexander here. (see above) Charles after my dad (and he was so proud)
Kate Montgomery - we thought the first 3 would be a Katie and finally got her, but then decided there were too many Katie's out there, so stuck with simplicity again. Montgomery is my maiden name.

Now that they are older, Ben and Kate, (especially Kate!) say their names are too simple and that when introducing themselves, people often ask them to repeat because it is only one syllable and hard to hear when said quickly. Also, Kate constantly has teachers calling her Katie. (Partially her fault as she decided to change her name to Katie in first grade, and her understanding teacher went with it for the rest of the year but by summer, it was back to Kate)
Also, we had to have a saint name in there for all of them - I can't imagine baptizing them without that.
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Lauren Peters BlogFebruary 6, 2014 at 11:41 AM
Love all your name choices and I'm sure you will pick another great one for your new boy or girl. I can't wait to hear it - because I am serriously obsessed with baby names.

Our boy is Camden James. Camden because we liked the way it sounds (and it has a great nickname - Cam). James is my brother and nephew's middle name. We're talking about baby #2 and so my mind is a flutter with possibilities for this non-existent child. I love so many boys names, but have a really hard time love-ing girls names. Ho hum, time will tell.
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JacquelineFebruary 6, 2014 at 11:43 AM
We have three children - Olive Evangeline, Silas Benjamin and Oona Caroline. We used the name book "A is for Atticus" by Lorilee Craker for inspiration for Olive. (Highly recommend that book - SUCH a fun read!) We also made the mistake of telling friends and family our name pick with Olive before she was born - they all hated it. But I'm so glad we stuck with it because it suits her to a tee. :) We used "A is for Atticus" for our son Silas' name inspiration. Oona was born 4 weeks ago, and we had the hardest time with her. We were going to name her Clara, but a friend beat me to it. Then we were going to name her Ada but would you believe it - ANOTHER friend used it! (Not their faults - we kept our picks tight under wraps.) So we were watching a documentary about JD Salinger one night and Oona O Neill Chaplin was mentioned and we fell in love with the name. :)
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AnonymousFebruary 6, 2014 at 11:51 AM
My husband and I are having our first in June, but we agreed on the names of our first boy and girl well before we were engaged. My husband is a Third, so if we have a boy he will be Karl George IV. If we have a girl, we are taking her name from the line of family names out of which came my name and will call her Agnes Maria. My husband wasn't too fond of the name Agnes at first, but he's grown to like it. Besides, I didn't give him much of a choice: I've been planning on naming my first daughter Agnes for about ten years or so. We hope to have a slew of kids because we have several other names on deck! Most of them are family names and/or names of saints we are especially devoted to.
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AnonymousFebruary 6, 2014 at 12:09 PM
Wow I am so so late and my comment will probalby get lost but I'm going to write it up anyway!

so, my oldest is Sarah Rebecca. And it took us FOREVER to pick that name! We didn't want trendy and we didn't want something that could be shortened to a nickname (because you know...my grandmother told me after she was born and already named that "Sally" apparently is short for Sarah...whatever)

Funny thing is...before I had Sarah...I never knew anyone with a Sarah. But then...after we named her and all...we knew TONS of people with a Sarah. The good news is that she is the only Sarah in her class and that means a lot to me. :)

DD#2 is Danielle Christine. This was all the husband's brainchild. I take no credit for it whatsoever. I call her "Dani" and it fits her perfectly. So, we're all good.

DD#3 is Helen Olivia. Helen is a family name. I wasn't all gung-ho for family names before she came along. Helen was my grandmother's name and then it is also my first given name (but my parents called me by my middle name of Michelle -- oh, let's not get started on that!!) and...we knew of NO ONE naming their child Helen these days, though it was rather popular when my grandmother was born in 1920. You know what's funny? Helen is playing basketball this year and one of the teams we have played, like 3 times already, has a girl on the team named Helen! It's very funny as I always figured cheering for my Helen, she would know we were always cheering because there would be no other Helen's on the court -- eh...wrong answer!!

Dominic Richard is our first son. Dominic was a name I loved from the first time I pondered boys' names. So his name was gonna be Dominic. Richard is my husband's father's name, so after him I guess.

Vincent Gerard is our second son. It took us awhile to come up with Vincent, but it fits him perfectly. Funny thing is, that our priest is named Vincent. We didn't name Vincent after anyone, but if we would have, Father Rogers wouldn't be a bad choice! Gerard is my dad's name, too, so that's where that comes from.

Of course, we were trying to figure out names when we lost Gregory and Gregory is where we were stuck at the time, so that's his name. No middle name for him, though, which I am okay with. Gregory fits him just fine.

Of all my childrens' names, my favorite is Vincent Gerard. I just can't help it. It sounds so masculine and handsome!!
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TheresaFebruary 6, 2014 at 12:11 PM
I just spent waaaaayyyy too much time reading through these comments. My husband and I agree easily on boy names and we really struggle agreeing on girl names. If it were up to me, I would have a Margaret (or Margo or Meg or Greta -- any form of Margaret, really!).

Lucy Anne (named for her grandmothers)
Simon Alan (we both loved Simon and Alan is a family name)
Nora Kateri (a good compromise, don't you think?)

Lucy and Nora were not popular when we picked them and now they are. Crazy. My twin sister loves names that can be shortened into nicknames, and I typically don't. Curious.
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CFebruary 6, 2014 at 1:10 PM
I love the nam Avila Rose after with St. Teresa in mind. She could go by Vivi or Ava/Avie. Agustin or Augustine would go with your other strong boy names. Who doesn't wanna cuddle a Gus. Your family is beautiful. Blessings
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MontgomeryFestFebruary 6, 2014 at 1:23 PM
I LOVE your baby names..you're on a roll! Hmm...of the ones thrown out - I love, looove Olivia (for your friend due in April) and Therese and Oliver are top picks from the listing. My husband wants Oliver and I want Olivia, but we have a muuuuch easier time agreeing on girl names, so I have to give him Oliver and because we're (possibly) a few years out, this is probably irrelevant, but I stress about it, I do!
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UnknownFebruary 6, 2014 at 1:32 PM
We have Penelope Jane who likes to go by Penny, Lucia (prn loo-SEE-uh) Grace who is called Lucy or Lulu and Abram Vincent who I thought would be called Abe but is just "biggie" or "big guy" to his big sisters.
For another boy I really like Kolbe for my husband's confirmation Saint and I also like Tobias. For a girl I like Adelaide and also Zelie for St. Therese's mom Blessed Marie-Azelie Martin.
I like Judah or Jude for a boy for you! Or what about Benedict or Bennett (form of Benedict).
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ColleenFebruary 6, 2014 at 1:36 PM
I need to come back here and read all these name suggestions, because man oh man we're still struggling and baby is due in 6 weeks! BUt I wanted to say thank you for the mention, you're the bestest.
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JoAnna WahlundFebruary 6, 2014 at 2:10 PM
My kids are Elanor Mary, William Joseph, Violet Elizabeth, Gabriel Keith, and Peter David.

Elanor is named after the LOTR character (eldest daughter of Rosie Cotton & Samwise Gamgee), with Mary as her saint's name (it's also after the Basilica of St. Mary, where my husband and I were confirmed.

William is named after his great-grandfather (my husband's middle name is William, after the same man). Originally he was going to be William James, but we'd been considering Joseph in honor of Benedict XVI and asked my mom to pick after he was born. She chose Joseph.

Violet is named after my great-grandmother Violet, and Elizabeth has been my favorite girl name since forever. (I wanted to name my eldest daughter Elizabeth but my husband didn't want to use it as a first name due a negative association with an ex-girlfriend, so we compromised with having it as a middle name.) Plus my grandma's middle name starts with E and our last names, although different, both start with W so I liked that my grandma and my youngest daughter share initials as well as a first name.

Gabriel was my husband's confirmation name, and we've always loved it. My FIL's name is Keith, and I had the idea to pair Gabriel with Keith as a nod to G.K. Chesterton.

Peter was difficult to name. I really wanted to name him Benedict or Francis in honor of the Pope Emeritus/current Pope, but my husband was iffy on the idea since we'd already honored Pope Benedict with our eldest son's name. I loved Theodore too, but that was also vetoed. I thought about using David, after my father, but thought I'd prefer that as a middle name instead of a first name. My husband proposed Peter as a compromise, after the see of Peter, and I was initially reluctant as I'd had a nightmare boss with that name years ago. But we later found out that Peter was a family name (my husband's great-great grandfather, I think) and I warmed to using it. Then we went to a sci-fi convention and I met one of my favorite sci-fi authors, Peter David, and the name suddenly clicked.

Our girl name last pregnancy was Laura Bernice, after my sister and my husband's grandmother, but if we ever have another girl I think I'd rather use the girl name we had picked out for our eldest son - Rose Victoria. I love it so much.
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Cecilia StreetFebruary 6, 2014 at 2:31 PM
We have the same saint-name criteria as you do and also try to walk the line between not-too-common and not-too-bizarre (although my husband also likes to go through the whole canon of saints to try to find the most out-there ones!) So far we have Lucia Andrea (after St. Lucy, pronounced the Italian way--Lu-CHEE-ah--and my great-aunt/godmother) and Rocco Francis (who reminds me so much of your Bash. The name Rocco suits him well.) It's funny the reactions we received to his name--usually either something like, "Oh! I had a dog named Rocco..." or "He looks like a Rocco!" Um, thanks, I think! I love his name and can't even imagine him as anything else. Baby number 3 is due in 8 weeks and we are narrowing our list down, but it has felt a lot harder this time around to find names we love, rather than just "like." Our daughter's first name suggestion if we have a girl was Julia, followed by Buttercup. I have a strong feeling we are having a boy though, so we shall see. Thanks for such a fun post... I love reading your blog!
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the DeLislandFebruary 6, 2014 at 2:42 PM
So fun to read everyone's suggestions, and there were so many nice names I hope its not overwhelming! I do love all of your children's names too.
Our children are: James Gabriel, Cecilia Mariana, Rita Marie-Therese, Helena Rose and Benedict Gerard. My husband is a musician and promised St. Cecilia(patron of musicians) to name a daughter after her if she helped him find a good wife...I guess I fit the bill. He then promised St. Rita, on whose feast day we were married, that he would name a daughter after HER because I was anxious about not conceiving right away when we got married...little did I know that would not be a problem :) So, our first two daughters were named before we even had any children and I forbid him from making any more promises and we picked the rest of the names out together.
Our first three children have no nicknames, but I was so convinced Helena was going to be a boy I had no girl name picked out when she was born (dumb). I picked Helena spur of the moment and had a bit of buyers remorse, but we gave her the nickname Nellie when she got a little older and I love,love,love it! it fits her perfectly.
And Benedict is kind of a long name for a baby, so we call him Benny, which I also love!
good luck!
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CynthiaFebruary 6, 2014 at 2:51 PM
Coming up with names is one of my most favorite things ever. For the record (and I think I’ve told you this before) if we ever have another boy, I would love LOVE to name him Xavier. It’s been on my wish list ever since Noah. My husband has his heart set on David, though. Can’t say I’m that excited.

Vivienne is such a beautiful name…I vote for it to pop back into discussion when this little one is born :) Did I mention I think she’s a girl? That’s my vote! Also, the list has great, great names…but I would add Charles (Charlie!) and Oliver.
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AnonymousFebruary 6, 2014 at 3:49 PM
Such a fun discussion! We just had a baby girl and named her Inez--- I'm kind of obsessed with it, as I should be and hope anyone would be after they've chosen a name. Our older daughter is Mary Tobin (double name), and all are family names which is my biggest criterion. Here's my post about naming considerations: http://tellmeastoryjosie.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/naming-the-princess/

I love Agnes Josephine! I'm Josie and have always loved it. And Inez, our daughter's name, is a variant of Agnes. So it makes sense why I love it so much. Your friend has good taste.
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Sarah February 6, 2014 at 3:56 PM
Our first is Lucy Danielle. I wanted Lucille but the husband said it was too old lady. <-- That's the point. So, I got Lucy and Danielle is after his middle name Daniel. This baby will be Hannah Josephine. He wanted Ava with that middle name and wouldn't budge for a long, long time. There isn't enough water in the Atlantic to pour on the flames of that name for me to go with it. His Ex - who dealt out more than a year of stalking so severe I had to sell my car, move, and change my number not once but twice - just named her daughter Ava Josephine and he was unphased when I told him so and said he still wanted it. Good try buddy. So Hannah it is!
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UnknownFebruary 6, 2014 at 4:26 PM
I am one of 7…..ALL M names. Miranda, Mason, Myles, Maxwell, McKinnon, Meade, & Mailey Rose!!!!!!!!! I get called at least 5 of these before Miranda………Every.Single.Time.

Love your kids names!
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AmandaFebruary 6, 2014 at 4:44 PM
When I was pregnant with our first my husband and I came up with a stockpile of names, to deploy as necessary :o)
#1 is Rosemary Winifred, for the Theotokos and the ancient Welsh Saint, though Winifred is also a family name on my husband's side, and when we emailed around to find suggestions for middle names that go with Rosemary it happened to be her feast day - so I don't think we had much choice!
#2 is due in July and will probably be either Leona Mae (for St. Leo, and Mae is both my college roommate's, and my recently deceased Great Aunt's middle name) or Edmund Michael (for St. Edmund, and for a promise I made in high school to my dad that he could have a grandson named "Mikey" he doesn't remember demanding this, but a promise is a promise, right?)

The other names are Margaret Megan (called Gretchen) and Kieran Forrest. We'll see if we run out! I figure we have a few years to build up the stockpile again ;o)

love love love the blog, Grace, thanks for sharing so much of your life with all of us!
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UnknownFebruary 6, 2014 at 5:01 PM
I'm in the "Pick a name then Google to see if a saint's name matches up" camp as well. My first also has my middle name too, so narcissists unite!
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The Towers FamilyFebruary 6, 2014 at 8:02 PM
Mine are Benjamin Dean (named after a student and my husband's father), Amelia Therese, Joseph Robert, Charlotte Rose (one of your readers said was a beautiful name and she is right), and Henry Ignatius.

We are currently pregnant with our sixth and name in the running are:
Miles, Linus, Simeon, Xavier, Leo, Augustine, Xavier
Anna, Juliet, Miriam, Faustina, Mabel, Hazel
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ElenaFebruary 6, 2014 at 8:11 PM
We pick names that will fit our kids when they are 80 years old. Our first is Edith Jane and our second was Francis Donald. Then someone asked if we were doing the alphabet because we had an E and a F. We thought that was a good idea so number 3 was Greta Anne, 4th Harriet Rose and 5th Ike David. Number 6th is J and we are thinking of Joe for boy and Julie for girl, but that is not set in stone. We can't decide on middle names yet. Going for ultrasound to find out gender tomorrow!
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Kaitlin @ More Like MaryFebruary 6, 2014 at 8:35 PM
I LOVE talking baby names. Not pregnant over here but we have baby name convos almost nightly (the hubs is a saint). With Hannah and Paul both being Biblical, I feel we need to branch out a bit for our (hopeful) third so we don't seem like thumpers. If it didn't sound HORRIBLE with our last name, I would name our next little girl Avila for St. Theresa of.....you guessed it.
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TiffanyFebruary 6, 2014 at 8:52 PM
Aww!! Baby names! =) I love each and every one of your names! I really like Vivienne. It's so pretty and old fashioned. My friend is naming her baby Vivienne Rose.

We came up with Gabriel Reese because we wanted a strong man Bible name. And then Reese is a family name. Avelyn Grace we came about in a weird sort of way. I always knew I wanted the middle name to be Grace (its my sister's name), but we wanted a name that we could shorten to Avi because we heard the name in that Brad Pitt gypsy movie… I can't even think of the movie and it was actually a guy's name in the movie, but I thought it was cute. Ha!

And then this one is Daisy. We were considering a few different names, but we weren't really sold on anything until Nate said, "What about Daisy? That's our flower." It's a long story, but that's basically our flower from way back in the day when he used to bring me flowers. Hah. Then both of the other kids have a Biblical or faith based name in their somewhere, so I picked Faith as the middle name. Daisy Faith. =)
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TamarFebruary 6, 2014 at 9:50 PM
Humbly offering for your consideration: Conrad Patrick Patton, Damien Francis Patton, Madeline Mary Patton, Genevieve Therese Patton
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UnknownFebruary 6, 2014 at 10:34 PM
We have Patrick Neil and Emmet Michael. Emmet was almost Cormac because i wanted to call him Mac.
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LaurenFebruary 6, 2014 at 10:48 PM
I have a Margaret Elisabeth. My husband and I wanted a traditional name that wasn't super common. We love names like Sophia, Emma, Olivia, and Ava but I was a Lauren going to school in the 90's. I was not Lauren. I was Lauren H or Lauren #2 or whatever. I wanted a chance for my child to be the only one his or her class. It's impossible to predict what will or won't be popular, beyond what is right at this moment. I know Elisabeth is definitely a common middle name, but it's my sister's middle name (yes, spelled with an S). The second consideration was that it not be super bizzare (either the name itself or the spelling). The final consideration was that it be appropriate for all stages of her life- you know names that seem super cute if she's 5, but maybe not so much if she's 55 and a super cool executive in a board room? I think it's a lovely name and suits her very well. I'm pretty sure it's a saint's name too (good Lutheran here, so not a requirement, but every good Religion major knows a few!). I love all of your kiddo's names. Also, a friend just chose Miriam for her daughter (also to be born in April) and I think it's absolutely lovely. Best of luck!
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FrancineFebruary 6, 2014 at 11:55 PM
I was waiting to comment on this because I wanted to see what everyone else was saying - I love these baby name discussions. We have Grace Christine (loved the name Grace, plus there's the Marian connection for the Catholic win) and Sophia Rose, whose name we decided on the day before she was born. I was hesitant to use the name Sophie at first since it's so popular, but then I decided who cares? We go the traditional route, preferably Catholic, names that will last for their whole lives (I mean, it's not like Debra is a popular baby name, or Cassidy for an elderly lady) and names that you won't confuse with the opposite gender or weird spellings that the child would have to correct every day for the rest of their life (you know, like Meaghan instead of Megan? that sort of thing). We don't share our names ahead of time, either, so fingers crossed that nobody else in the family takes the boy name that I love before we get a chance to use it.

If you have a son, please don't name him Avery. You Pattons can do much better.
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lizFebruary 7, 2014 at 12:08 AM
We went with traditional middle names. Ours babes are Abigail Patricia (Patricia for my grandmother) and Harper Robert (Robert for my husband). I had to convince my husband that a namesake was a good idea. Our son is 5 1/2 and loves that his name is the same as Daddy's. I still love their names and they are a perfect fit for each kiddo.
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Carey KingFebruary 7, 2014 at 6:27 AM
So no babies yet but I've been broody since pretty much honeymoon (four years ago) so for four years I've been playing the 'how hippy of a name can you pick out to freak out your husband', I do love hippy names but its fun to go overboard.. Plus I come from the not so traditional family names (except mine-weird), my brothers are Rory Chad and Roarke Kern and my sister is Tanha Kiah.. I like my brothers names, might steal one for one of my kids. Oh also our surname being King means we have to be careful with names- like say Faye King out loud, or Joe King.. OR my husbands full name said fast Warren Leigh King.. well I think its pretty funny.
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MarianneFFebruary 7, 2014 at 6:57 AM
We started out using baby names and Bible names and combos thereof. I am a convert and really didn't understand or care about saints in the early years of our marriage. So our names seem boring, however, I really love the strong simplicity of the names we chose, and as everyone else gets quirkier and quirkier, I feel like our names seem more unusual, but with more dignity than typical unusual names. We have 8 kids..John Gerald, Peter Edward, Paul Matthew, Daniel (strange family name for middle), Andrew Leonard, Abigail Anne, Elizabeth Louise, Annemarie (my maiden for middle)....The only name I sort of regret is Abigail, since Abby is so popular and rather trendy sounding, even if it comes directly from the OT. I loved it at the time in my young 20s, though - it sounded so cute. Ugh...CUTE...not what you want to pick out for your future ADULT child! I like your kids' names, Grace. I always wanted to have a boy and call him Teddy, but didn't have the nerve to use Theodore! Good job!
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Bridget February 7, 2014 at 8:41 AM
Our baby (not coming anytime soon) was due last Saturday so names are on my radar. My husband and I aren't telling anyone our names until we have our baby because of the reasons you mentioned, so I'll hold off on telling our names, but give you some suggestions. I'm also Catholic so it is very important to have saints names or derivatives (like my sister Maureen is for Mary) or Biblical names for at least one name. I also love names that have meaning (my name means "strong" as I was 3 months premature and St. Brigid is the patron saint of midwives/babies) or special stories. My husband is from the South and loves family names, meaning surnames and a lot of names I find to be "law firm" names. I don't necessarily want my son or daughter with a name that sounds like he or she is an LLS and not a child!
Names I love:
Mary Virginia (this was my grandma's name and we live and met in DC so I find it really fitting; I also have a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary)
Mary Clare (St. Clare is one of my favorite saints)
Mary Frances (also love St. Francis!)
Mary Josephine nickname Josie (after Mary and Joseph, my aunt Mary Jo and grandparents, Mary Virginia and Joseph Francis)
Beatrice (special family name on both sides)
Mary Catherine nickname Mary Cate (too popular in my family--two of my aunts are Mary Catherines but both go by crazy nicknames)
Nora (again a family name, but super popular)
Annemarie (my mom's name/patron saint of mothers/Mary's mother)
Crazy Irish names I love and some are saints, but my husband nixed:
Ailis
Talullah (this is actually a saint and has special meaning to us as it also means falling waters and we went to Zimbabwe on our honeymoon)
Maeve
Aiofe
Aveline/Aveleen (means well blessed or wished for child--my siblings love this one)

Boy names:
Kieran Patrick (my favorite name since childhood)
Finian
Francis
Penn (for where we met, Pennsylvania Avenue and had our first date and engaged)
Theodore (you already have a son with this name)
Ignatius (love this name and have a coworker with it, but my husband nixed)
Ronan
Blaise (saint of the day a few days after baby's birth and suggested by my grandmother)
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SamanthaFebruary 7, 2014 at 11:55 AM
We came up with Eugenia Roxanne. I knew I wanted to use Roxanne because its my mom's name and she was named after her grandmother, etc. Eugenia is after my mother-in-law. What I didn't know at the time is that it was also passed from her grandmother to her. So Roxy's named after both grandmothers who were named after their grandmothers. Kind of cool.

Had we had a boy, we had several on the list including Phillip, Allen and Russell - all family names. Guess we like to pick from those :)
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05 February 2014

baby names

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