This is Going to be Difficult

Before we left on vacation I set a goal: let's try to pick a name.

I thought it was a great plan. We could tell our child in a few years that we took a vacation to choose his/her name. We didn't have any bigger plans for this trip, so I expected to have plenty of time.

Four days and hundreds of miles later, we haven't agreed on much. Most of the time, we were both marvelling out loud at all the really bad names in the baby books. I honestly don't get what some people are thinking when they name their kids.

So far, I think Kelly and I have only agreed that Rose is a good middle name for a girl. It sounds nice with most other names and she can choose when to use it. That leaves three more names to pick out.

We've agreed on some basic rules:

1) I won't allow any gender neutral names (like mine). And, I don't want us to pick any names that have multiple spellings, either.

I don't like having to correct everyone and now that I'm older I wonder how much these accidental aliases are affecting my credit score (among other things). Just between us girls, I once received a sample tampon sent to "Erin Kreel." I considered sending a letter to the company telling them where to stick it.

2) Any name has to pass a basic playground smell test. I know kids are creative and they'll find plenty of ways to tease each other. If a name doesn't pass at least the "Banana-Fanna" song it's out! It's the least we can do.

We each have some other general rules. I don't like long names (three syllables is pushing it). And, Kelly wants the child to have a cute nickname.