Baby Name Game

We had a bunch of different names picked out for a girl. My husband has always wanted a girl but I was pulling for a boy. He grew up surrounded by women and most of his friends are women. I was a girl myself and I remember playing tug of war with my mom while she brushed my messy locks. I also remember fighting with her about what I was going to wear and how difficult I was in general. I was not ready to go through all that. But I have always considered naming my daughter Charlotte after yours truly. We have 4 generations of Tom in our family. Names get passed down Father to Son, why not Mother to Daughter. So I do hope that our next baby (yes there will be another) will be a girl.

We had no interest in waiting to find out the sex of the baby. There will be plenty of surprises and I wanted to actually know something about my baby before his big debut. I was a high risk pregnancy and had ultrasounds every few weeks and spent too long convinced that our baby would be faceless as he was very camera shy. But he did love showing his junk! We have many ultrasound pictures with little arrows pointing to his penis exclaiming "BABY BOY". Plus, people want to buy stuff for the baby and I did not want to end up with a ton of yellow and green gender neutral stuff.

Naming our son was a big challenge. Patrick suggested Django, I suggested Hunter. I can hardly remember most of our other suggestions. My desire for Hunter would not be squelched, so I suggested Orion. We figured everyone knew the constellation Orion (but they don't). The name would be different yet familiar. Everyone (not everyone) has a memory of star gazing with their father who points out Orion's belt. I know I had that connection. Orion is my favorite constellation partly because it was so easy to find.

We had the first name down, which took forever but then we had to come up with a middle name. It had to be something normal. If he hated his first name he could fall back on his middle name. I hope he never hates his name but it may take a while for him to grow into it like it did for me(http://sofriggincute.blogspot.com/2012/02/nicknames.html). Patrick did not want to use any names from the bible but in the end, this rule was broken. I like using a grandparents name as a middle name. We went with his paternal grandfather's first name, James. He was usually called Mac and Patrick had suggested this name but Mac McConnell was just too much.

Once you have the name, do you tell anyone? We told people, we didn't see the point in keeping it a secret. No one was going to ruin that name for us and we weren't worried about anyone stealing the name. After our son was born, we found out Patrick's dear old friend was a bit upset because we had accidentally "stolen" the name she had her heart set on for her second child. Since she hasn't started on child number one yet, nobody got too bent out of shape. When I asked her what name she had picked out for her first child, she refused to spill the beans just in case we happened to love that one too. I would be happy for her to name her child Orion as I think it is nice to know someone with the same name. All the Charlotte's I ever knew growing up were older than my grandmother. I hear this name a lot these days and am very happy to see its surge in popularity.

The day after we decided on Orion, Patrick got a work email from Major Orion So and So of the US Army. How odd that a name we never saw used in reality would pop up so quickly. It was nice to know there was another Orion out there. We may never find a personalized licence plate, toothbrush, or pen with Orion's name on it but we are crafty people. I own some Sharpie pens and it is amazing what you can find on the internet.

Nicknames

We call Orion by many different names. We call him baby boy, fussy pants, ginger snap, monkey, and doodle bug. When he is nursing, I call him my piglet. When he is crawling, I call him komodo dragon but sometimes it comes out like kimono dragon which is a funny image.

When naming a child, you have to take possible nicknames into consideration. As his full name is Orion James McConnell, we hope people don't call him OJ or Jim. I am cool with James but opposed to Jim because I do not see any reason to shorten an already one syllable word. People often think his name is Ryan or O'Ryan and this will be a life long struggle which I did not anticipate.

Growing up named Charlotte Media Hirst, I hated my name. It was weird followed by weirder. At least Orion is a weird name followed by a normal name. Media was my grandmother's first name and we sadly do not know its origin. It wasn't until I was in high school that I became proud of my name. When I was in elementary school I was obsessed with normal names like Jenny and Jessica.

I have had a few nicknames, most of which were for family use only. I was Char-la-la, La La Orange, Charlie Bum, and Messy Marvina. This last one was because I always got ketchup on my sleeve and made a general mess of myself when eating and still do. When my brother was home for my wedding in 2005 he called me Char Char Binks. I never liked being called Char and did not realize until I was old enough to vote that I could have been called Lotte.

I prefer to be called Charlotte. I call my husband Patrick and refer to him as Pat on occasion but only in writing. I hope Orion likes his name and nicknames. Do you have any good nicknames?