What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.*
I was rooting for George.
Texts this week to my husband:
ME: I want a British baby.** I want to be a 'mummy.'
MATTHEW: You can be whatever you want to be.
Later….
ME: A name! George Alexander Louis of Cambridge.
MATTHEW: Nice! They didn't take any of ours.
"Ours" is an ever-changing list of top-secret names we talk about for our future offspring. (I'm not pregnant. Not even a little bit.) Matt once let a couple of those names slip when we were out with good friends and I got r-e-a-l-l-y weird about it. Because, A, I don't believe in calling dibs, and, B, I don't want feedback.
If you have a baby before me, I don't want you to feel like you can't name your baby Eustace Francesco if you want to — even if that name's at the top of our list. (It's not.)
There should be no friendship politics in baby-naming. If you choose a name we love, no worries; we'll just find another equally great name when our time comes.
We've already seen notable naming trends among our friends — we know of too many little Olivers, Liams, Theodores and Chloes to consider them — and that will influence our decision.
We won't use George either.
But that's okay. There are, like, 14,098,983,098,989,892,321 names out there. At least 87 of them are respectable and non-stupid.
The other danger of sharing baby names prior to giving birth is the unwanted feedback. I'm afraid most people believe that until the baby pops out, the name's up for negotiation.
I'd rather surprise you all with sweet little Princess Consuela Bananahammock than have you suggest, weeks before her birth, that I call her Nevaeh instead. (Don't. Because I won't.)
Fun Hanson-related fact: Natalie Hanson was bold enough to just post her unborn son's name — Viggo Moriah — on a whiteboard with the note: "That is the name. It will not be changed."
Bloggers have already criticized the little prince's name. "His initials are GAL!" "Alexander Louis George sounds better." "What about Arthur or Frederick?"
Can you imagine if the name leaked before he was born?!
Cyberspace friends, do you have lists of potential names for hypothetical offspring running through your heads, too?
Are the names a secret?
Would negative feedback or rising popularity mess with your head?
*We saw Romeo and Juliet in Stratford last weekend. I like Shakespeare.
**I later established that I don't want a Snatch-esque British kid who screeches "Maaaa!" at me. I'd rather have a pretentious Peter Pan-esque British child who calls me "Mum-mae."