Before we even started TTC, Papa Marbles and I already had a list of names we liked. For a girl, we had always liked Zoe and Sophie. For a boy, it was harder, but we liked Casper and Milo. When we finally got pregnant, reality struck, and we knew we had to commit to a name. We wanted a name that was different, strong, quirky or classic, but simple enough that my parents (whose first language is not English) could pronounce without butchering.
In Papa Marbles’ family, there is a naming tradition for all first-born boys to have the intials “CRB.” We had to consider the tradition in selecting names, but I wasn’t too excited about any “C” names for boys. Papa Marbles really liked the name, Casper, but I was still rather indifferent. Kids can be mean and I worried that Casper would incite teasing. Then we found out we were having a girl, so we switched gears and considered girls’ names.
Oddly enough, Olive (the name of Mr. and Mrs. Bee’s daughter) was a top contender. We liked that it was different. We also liked classic English names like Violet and Emma. We also considered Harper, Sadie, and Lucy. Zoe and Sophie were no longer contenders since we thought they were getting too common and popular. But we still couldn’t commit to a name. Even at Week 38 of our pregnancy, I was at the bookstore flipping through name books and making lists. We decided against Olive because my family would inevitably butcher the name, and vacillated between Violet and Emma. I preferred Emma more because we’d run into the same pronunciation problems with Violet. We decided to wait until Little Marbles was born before making a final decision. Papa Marbles’ parents had told us, “When you see the baby, you’ll know if the name fits.” They were right.
The day Little Marbles was born, we looked at her and we knew she was an Emma and not a Violet. Emma—simple, classic, and easy to pronounce. We also loved the meaning of the name, “all-containing; universal.” Although the name is not super original, (it has gained in popularity in recent years and was the fourth most popular girls’ name in 2010) we think it is perfect for our Little Marbles.
How did you decide on a name for your little one? Did you have it picked out before he/she was born or after?
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
funny because mr. bee LOVES the name milo and says we should have named charlie milo!
admin / wonderful grape / 20724 posts
@Mrs. Bee: I am over my Milo phase. I now officially love Charlie again.
Marbles, thank you for not including a picture of Little Marbles in this post. I was able to read the post without becoming overwhelmed by the cuteness of your baby! She is just tooo cute!!
I love the name Emma! Great choice!!!
honeydew / 7968 posts
awww emma’s a beautiful name for a beautiful girl.
i’m really hoping we can pick at least 3 names for each of my babies. right now, we have zero.
pear / 1852 posts
Our best friends are naming their daughter due Christmas Emma!
We also chose traditional names, but found inspiration in our grandparents, and have chosen to honour them.
pomegranate / 3053 posts
Our son’s name was our backup name (that I’ve always liked) if we didn’t pick one. LOL! Boy names are SO hard to choose… and we’re going to have another boy next Spring. Yay. Can’t wait to go through boy names again…and this time I don’t have a backup name…eek. Love the name Emma though. She is such a cutie!
apricot / 260 posts
Emma is a great name. We chose Wombat’s name very early on when I was pregnant with Moose. Since Moose will always be Moose, we kept both the boy and girl names. While I was pregnant with Wombat, we were both hesitant about our girl name, but neither said anything. Now, we both love her name and it’s totally different, not in any lists anywhere.
persimmon / 1255 posts
There’s a reason why Emma is so popular, it’s such an elegant name.
We actually started with a nickname we both liked (since we’ll probably use the nickname more than her actual name) and chose from actual names that would fit.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
I love the name Emma.
pear / 1554 posts
We had to pick names my mom would be able to pronounce too. Names with l’s, r’s, and v’s get butchered by her. My husband’s name has all 3…hahaha. Also, we’re currently living in tokyo so, we wanted names that were overall easy to pronounce universally but still something we really liked. We had our first baby’s name picked out pretty early but we chose the middle name after he was born. We just chose our baby girl’s name a couple weeks ago, so we’re now all ready for her to come out.
pea / 6 posts
My husband and I were talking about names, and he instantly said ‘Stella’, and it stuck. When I said, okay, yeah, perfect! Now how about boys names….? He got all freaked out about committing, even though I knew it was perfect. Hilariously, we just kept coming back to Stella, and when we found at at 40 weeks that she was a girl, it was a done deal. I have a short list of contenders now for what is hopefully baby two very soon, but my current obsession is Rosalyn. Baby Roz? ADORABLE!
guest
It was so hard to pick names for our LOs! With DD #1, we had two names picked out before she arrived. As with you, we were going to decide after she arrived. Alicia just because I like how it sounds and Melody (from one of my fave Sanrio character My Melody and the letter M being my first name too. When DD #1 arrived, she definitely did not look like an Alicia but we had 2nd thoughts about Melody! We scoured the internet for more names but none called out to us. We went back to Melody and I love our choice
For my DD #2 and #3, it was more complicated since they were twins so that means I needed two girl names! We could not find any L names that we liked (L being DH’s first name). For awhile we were set on Charmaine & Josie but at about 20+ weeks into my pregnancy, I just tossed both names out of the window. We were back to square one. DH liked the name Slyvie but it just did not call out to me at all. I like Berry and Rae but DH said they sound like Barry and Ray. We started a new list and Ella jumps up. I went back and forth on it. We then toyed with the name Madeline. At 30+ weeks into my pregnancy, we were pretty much set on Ella and Madeline. One of my nurses heard about our choices and said that if she had a girl, she will name her Ella Rose. Finally, after the girls arrived, I had the idea to add “Rae” to Ella so they are Ella Rae and Madeline. I do get questions about why don’t all my girls have M names. For my tiwns, it was not a conscious effort to have M names – the name Madeline just agreed with us
clementine / 933 posts
My 4-year-old cousin is named Emma and it’s such a beautiful name! My sister and brother-in-law wanted something easy to spell and easy to say for their daughter, and they decided on Hannah. While neither of these precious girls has a terribly unique name, their names suit them both so well! And if I could survive as an “Ashley” born in the 80s, all of the Hannahs and Emmas of today will be just fine, too!
guest
My husband and I talked about names very early on (like 3 months into dating!) and agreed that boy or girl, the first name would be Afton. The night I noticed my husband, he was playing the Nickel Creek song at a party, so it has a sentimental story behind it. It’s a unique name and a little old fashioned – apparently it was more popular in the 1800s.
For a boy, we would’ve paired Afton with Stirling after the first American ancestor in my husband’s family.
For a girl, we paired Afton with Rhys. Rhys is usually the boy’s spelling, but we liked that it was more genuinely Gaelic. Rhys is related to being fiery and intrepid, which our little girl has certainly turned out to be! Our Afton Rhys is sweet and fearless =)
If we ever decided to have a second baby, it’d probably be Malcolm Stirling for a boy – we like strong Celtic names and we’d still like to carry the ancestry. For a girl, I’d love to use my incredible 91 year old grandmother’s name, Violet. I can’t believe any of my bazillion cousins and second cousins haven’t snagged that name yet! We also like Cora and it’s a family name. It’d be fun to keep the tradition of girls with R middle names, so we’d probably pick whichever one sounds best with an R middle name.
cherry / 111 posts
Picking a name was so hard for us. But I love the name we’ve chosen and can’t wait to meet her. It’s an old fashion name that people know, but I’ve only met one other person with her name. As for the middle name- it’s after both her grandmothers. Love Emma- so cute and classic.
kiwi / 718 posts
emma is such a beautiful, classic name.
we’ve had a girl’s name picked out for a long time now, but don’t have a set name for a boy yet. the ones that my husband likes, I like as well, so I told him it was his choice & he has been a bit indecisive, ha. since we aren’t finding out the sex, though, it’ll be neat to see which name works out!