Oh baby, baby

Kyle and I were talking about baby names last night on the phone. My brother and sister in law are pregnant with their first child and have been talking about baby names for a while now. I told Kyle what the girl's name will be, but I'm not sure if they've decided on a boy's name. Kyle said he thinks Allison (my sister in law) is going to have a girl... I still have no idea what makes him think that. He said he's psychic. ;) None of us care what it will be as long as he/she is healthy. We're just so excited to add to our (small) family!

After Kyle and I talked, I got to thinking about baby names and what I would want to name our child (one day). He said Ruthie Mae... I just laughed. He was kidding, thank God.

I like these names for girls (in no particular order):
Lydia
Sophia (call her Sophie)
Anna
Hallie (this name could be the victim of problem #2- see below)
Hannah

I like these names for boys (in no particular order):
Samuel (call him Sam)
Benjamin (call him Ben)
Ian
Will
Gavin

 Here is my checklist for naming my (future) child:

1. The name cannot remind me of anyone I don't like. I don't want to call my kid's name and have some douche bag's face in the back of my head. I know that my child will be able to provide a new definition of that name for me. But, I still wouldn't name he or she the same name as my ex(es), Kyle's ex, or any of our not-so-favorite-people.

2. The name cannot be difficult to pronounce. My child is going to be in school for 12+ years. I'm not going to choose some ridiculous name that their teacher or classmates can't pronounce. Like Kira... is it Ke-ee-ra or Ky-yy-ra? And no matter how many times they tell someone how to pronounce it, that someone will (9 times out of 10) say it the opposite way. I had a friend in college whose name is Kyra and she had this problem in our classes.

3. The name cannot be difficult to spell. Sometimes, the spelling of one's name can be a do or die situation. When your child is going through testing time in school and they have an answer sheet or booklet with their name, and oops! There is a random "e" on the end of their name- that could screw them up. Or, you decided to be super duper creative and spell your child's name "Marq" instead of "Mark". You're not creative, you're just weird... and you just made your child's life very, very difficult. Names that end with the "ey" or "ie" sound ALWAYS get spelled differently. Kellie, Kelly, Kelley. See where I'm going with this?

While I'm on the spelling of names... my name is spelled RachEL, people. Not Racheal or Rachael. People on Facebook misspell my name. It's Facebook, for crying out loud! My name is RIGHT there for it to be spelled correctly. This is a pet peeve of mine. Can you tell?

4. The name cannot be turned into a horrible nickname. Name your child Jack and I guarantee you he will be called "Jack off" one day. This really needs no further explanation.

 I don't plan on having children for a few years, but when I do, I'll have a pretty good idea as to what their name will be... which I've heard is a pretty difficult decision for some couples. I'm glad Kyle and agree on... most everything. :)