The Name Game

Since we are in the final stretch (quite literally) until the baby is born, it's been fun as more and more people are trying to guess the name. In an effort to spread the wealth to those we don't see all of the time, it is now open season on guessing the name. Submit your best guess (or guesses, but try to limit them to a handful) to Kirk, and the winner (whoever is closest* or, if you're good, spot on) gets a special prize. I've shared a variety of clues here and there, but the main clues are listed below. Good luck!

-The name is not in the top 300 on the Social Security baby name website for 2007. Now, some people have taken that to mean that the name is in the 300-400 range, because why else would I say "top 300" and not "top 400." While I applaud that astute observation, the 300+ qualification came well before we chose a name. I simply would not OK any name more popular than number 300, since I deemed it too common. Why 300 as the cutoff? Because I'm weird, that's why. It really was purely arbitrary. So I highly recommend looking at names #300-1,000.


-The name is an uncommon/rare shortened form of another name. This doesn't mean the name we chose is "short" but simply means that it could be a derivative of another name, but it is rarely used in this manner. It's a name in its own right.


-There is an actress with this name, but not one I really knew of before choosing the name (and I try to be a film/tv buff, although I used to be much better at it). This clue really doesn't help much, since a simple imdb.com search would likely find an actress with any name you could think of.


-This name might have a different connotation to my mother's generation than to my generation...but it might not.


-The baby's middle name is Kathryn, since Lynne, her grandmother, and her mother all have that same middle name. I like Kathryn, but I also know that if our second child is a girl, I get to pick a weirder middle name that time around. While we didn't pick a first name specifically to "flow" or "gel" with Kathryn as a middle name, we also don't think it sounds horrible, so take that however you are so inclined.


-Many of our friends and family know that during the name search process, we both refused to look at names that ended in a long "e" sound or an "s" sound. An "e" sound (e.g. Janie) coupled with the long "e" at the end of "Smiley" is cute for a little girl, but seemed to cutesy for an adult woman (yes, the baby will one day grow up, crazy!). Avoiding an ending "s" sound is to avoid a run on to "Smiley."



-Still others have asked, "The name IS in the top 1,000, right?" To that, my simple response is: "I wouldn't be that mean, would I?" :)


Now go get to work!


*"closest" defined by Kirk