Tuesday, April 19, 2011

What's in a Name?

Decisions, Decisions.

With Evie we listed about 8 names and after finding out most were VERY popular, we landed on Eve after I played on Baby Name Voyager.
After I picked her name from the list... I discovered my mom's list that she had for me & put them both in Evie's keepsake baby book.
Cue the heartfelt Hallmark muzak.

With Schwally... the decision is just so different.
Rob and I loved, I mean LOVED the name "Jack" after I overheard a mother call after her son while at the eye doctor... back when we were dating. But now, here we are a decade later, and the name is so very popular (and even used by close friends) that we just can't do it. Boo.
Back to the drawing board.
Rob threw out the name "Owen" pretty quickly as a counter to my "Henry." I considered it... I liked it and we hadn't really discussed anything else for a long time. We shared "Owen" with many and somehow it became a done deal.
But...
I'm not 100% sold. Ugh, the agony over this is getting so ridiculous.
I love the name "Owen", but I am left wondering how it sounds as a complete name. When you spend your life having to say your first & last name together over the phone... you get sensitive to "mouthful" names.

Evie's sold on Owen. Somewhere along the way (after over hearing us sharing this name with many people who ask) she has come to understand that we "call him Schwally... but his real name is Owen."
Evie is borderline distraught at my attempts to unravel what we've done.
I told her this past week, "Evie, what if we don't name your baby brother Owen? What if we named him... Max?"
She laughed at this... Evie only knows the TV Show 'Max and Ruby' and cannot conceive of anyone sharing a name... she thinks I am joking.
I then suggest, "What about Henry?"
Now Evie gets mad, "Henry's in my class!" She, again, thinks I am teasing her and isn't liking that I'm changing something she thought we were firmly settled on.
Evie changes the subject... so much for that.

Rob calls to tell me that he overheard Evie tell someone, "His name is Owen... but mommy likes Max."
Interesting... maybe I can still keep my options open (or Evie can)...

Only 3 more weeks till a final decision must be made.
Daunting.

4 comments:

Natalie said...

You could name him Owen Henry and call him O. Henry.

Otherwise, I must honestly say that I have had a handful of students named Max over the years and they have all been AWESOME kids.

Brooke Ullman said...

Phew! I thought you were going to say they were turds.
;-)

billburgnyc said...

I like Owen. It's a very popular name in New York. But I keep forgetting to add "Ullman" to the end--that changes the sound of any name.

I like Max. Laura associates it with a kid she counseled at camp (not a good association). Laura just threw out "Garret Ullman." She just said, "That's a hockey player."

No matter what you name the little guy, I think he'll always be "Schwally" to me!

Brooke Ullman said...

Oh, he's totally stuck as Schwally from here on out.

Evie has a Garret in her class.
Evie is stuck on Owen.
Max... yeah, he can be a little sh*t with that name, siggle.