The Name Game

What do a WWII soldier, a 60's rock band, grandmothers, and the leader of a strange Eastern religion have in common? Well, all of these things (believe it or not) have influenced the naming our children! Quite the game, no?

I'm not going to lie. Coming up with the FOURTH girl name in a row has been an arduous task. Over the past couple of months, I keep reflecting back on our experiences picking out names. (I find the process of how other people select names for their children fascinating. If you don't feel the same way, stop reading now!)

#1- This was the most stress-free naming experience Carter and I have ever had. He told me he liked the name "Chloe" a lot. He thought it was pretty and cool and unique (he'd never known anyone with that name and neither had I). Those are the three things he aspires to when considering names. I loved it as soon as I heard it. I wasn't even pregnant at the time, but I knew our first baby girl would be named Chloe! At the ultrasound, when the tech proclaimed a girl in our near future, we instantly started calling her Chloe. I suggested "Jayne" as a middle name (don't flame me for the "unique" spelling! This was how my grandmother spelled it and she's the one I wanted to honor!). He agreed. Done and done. We did discover later that "Chloe" is actually pretty high on the most common baby name lists (it's been #1 in England a LOT this decade). But we still haven't met very many. And we still love it.

#2- Carter thought it was best to wait for the ultrasound before we started any in-depth conversations about names this time (he didn't want 50% of them to be wasted, I guess). So yeah, there was no declaration at the ultrasound this time around. Once we knew we were having a girl, we both latched on to our favorites and refused to budge. He like "Kasia" (pronounced with an "S-H" sound and rhyming with "Tasha," which is the Polish version of Kate) and I was dead set on Mia Kate. Each debate only caused us to become more entrenched in the name we loved. After about a month, I realized we needed to come up with an alternative because we both felt too strongly against the other's selection (probably more as a matter of pride than anything else). I started scouring the internet for names I liked that would fit his "pretty, cool, unique" requirements (the task fell to me because I was the one who desperately wanted to settle on a name). I made lists and lists. One day I randomly added "Piper" to one. I'm not sure how much I liked it at the time and I had no idea Carter would zero in on it like he did. But soon it was our top choice for The Great Compromise of 2005. Even though certain family members (who shall remain nameless) came right out and said they hated our choice, the name "Piper" kept growing on me. Now, I can't imagine her being anything else. I love it more than ever because it fits her so well. We selected "Marie" as the middle name to honor both Carter's grandmother and my favorite aunt.

#3- By the time you find out you're expecting your third girl in less than five years, you've definitely exhausted your top choices and are wistfully thinking about your options for the other gender. For some reason, this time around I started obsessing about using a Beatles name. When I was 13, I fell in love with the Beatles (specifically Paul). To this day, they are my very favorite band. Anyway, I always thought it would be totally awesome to name a baby after a Beatles song (admittedly, Julia was the one I selected at the time). I really wanted to make this childhood dream of mine come true, so I forced Carter to pick from the ones I like (Martha, Molly, Lucy, Rita, Sadie, etc. The list was actually pretty long. But don't worry, Prudence never made an appearance!). We quickly settled on Sadie because it's the coolest (in our humble opinion). So yeah, we named our kid after Sexy Sadie, the John song that is a thinly veiled skewering the Maharishi (written post-India and appearing on The White Album). I feel okay about that because I just love the name. And the piano hook at the beginning of the song is pretty amazing. We picked "Rose" for the middle name because hi, it was probably my last chance to give a shout out to my maiden name and all my beloved Rose relatives (gosh, I miss being Kelly Rose sometimes!).

Technically, Sadie is named for the bearded guy in the back.

#4- This brings us to the present. Again, no serious discussions could begin until we got the ultrasound. Although, I have to say, we had pretty much settled on a boy name. It was going to be Marsden Michael. "Marsden" to honor Carter's great uncle who was a WWII soldier and ended up dying young. "Michael" was going to be after my father. We were going to call the baby "Mars." Anyway, we were back to the drawing board after the tech told us yet again to prep for a girl (I found it hilarious the way she apologized and tried to console us).

This is Marsden, who (unfortunately) won't be getting any shout-outs from us. Except for right now.

Picking the right name this time around has taken on even greater weight. I know rivalries between four sisters so close in age are sure to come up. And I really want to make sure names aren't the cause! Even though there was no intended pattern in the names selected up to this point (as you have read), I realized that all the names so far have five letters and two syllables. I suddenly became fixated on finding a name that fit that pattern (and ruled out previous front-runners "Lucy" and "Amelia"). Also, since two out of the three names ended with the "e" sound, I ruled out any other "e"-ending names (so Piper wouldn't feel like the odd-ball out! Goodbye, "Molly," "Heidi," and "Julie"). Finally, I didn't want to repeat any first initials (If I can look Sadie in the face and call her "Piper," what hope do I have if we pick "Sophie" for the new baby? ). Carter wasn't too thrilled with the strict criteria. I went carefully through the baby name book and made a list of the names that fit (or almost fit) and insisted we work from that.

Finally, after weeks of deliberation, we have agreed! Granted, I had to play both my "I've-Been-Sick-For-More-Than-Six-Months-Carrying-This-Child" AND my "You-Said-If-You-Kept-Singing-In-UCA-I-Could-Name-The-Baby" cards to get this to be the name. But we FINALLY have it. We will be welcoming Tessa Kate into our lives in just about two months. Hooray! "Tessa" fits all the criteria and I love it. The "Kate" is to honor my sister, Katie. We told our girls their sister's name and now we call her "Tessa" when we talk about her. I think it makes her seem more real to them. I'm sure a Tessa by any other name would be as sweet, but still, I'm pretty excited. And glad that we're done naming babies!

THIS is the Kate we're honoring (even if we are huge LOST fans).

And if you read all of this, CONGRATULATIONS! I had to get this recorded for posterity!