When I was born my parents, like many parents, had a hard time narrowing down a name for me. I was “baby girl” for the five days my mother stayed in the hospital after her c-section, and the nurses pushed my parents to come up with something so they could file the paperwork before our discharge. Eventually my parents settled on a name, only to discover shortly after that it was the most popular name the year I was born. My mother didn’t like that idea and so my parents went back to the drawing board.

At six months old they legally changed my first name to a less common sounding name (or less common at the time of my birth), choosing it from a Chinese song they both were fond of. Imagine my surprise as a child when digging through my parents drawers’ to find the pretty birth certificate with a completely different name on it. Staring at the name I could never imagine that being me and after hearing the story about my name change, it made me see how much identity can be tied to a name as well. Perhaps this is the reason why names have long held a fascination for me, even before my own children. As a little girl I kept notebooks squirreled away filled with names, anticipating the day I could bestow one on a baby and watch it come to life at last.

As Mr Chocolate and I teeter back and forth on the idea of being done with children now that Fiona is here, I admit that one of the saddest parts is the thought of no more names to choose and ponder and imagine. I love the names we chose for our children and seeing how they became their names as they grew. I couldn’t imagine them with different names and as our family grew, I loved thinking of new names to add to the sibling set too. All of that might be over now so I thought I would share all the would haves and could bes, and maybe if I’m lucky one more might find its way into our family…whether by baby or new pet!

Girls – I tend to like very romanticized, frilly and feminine names. It’s who I am by nature and I feel my own name falls under that category too. I have a strong leaning toward literary names as well due to my love of books. I also tend to go for less common names, nothing in the top 10 or even 50 if I can help it.

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The One: Vivienne Collette

If I ever get blessed to have another daughter again, this is the name. I was sure we were going to name Fiona Vivienne, when halfway through the pregnancy Mr Chocolate suddenly had a change of heart and vetoed it out right. I was upset to say the least and I sometimes regret not fighting for it more, but Fiona also fits her name well and I think it works with both Drake and Juliet in being short. Collette is a name that I loved on and off but never thought would work well as a first name. Fiona’s middle name is Karlie, after my father Karl who passed away a few years back, and since I used it with Fiona I have a free slot for a middle name again. I think I adore the way this flows.

Honorable Mentions:

  • Bianca
  • Noelle
  • Valentina
  • Lorelei
  • Daphne
  • Keira
  • Felicity
  • Guinevere
  • Jocelyn
  • Calista

Boys – For boys I tend to go for more masculine sounding names, ones that are less likely to cross over to the girls’ column, though I think there are a few names that might be an exception to that rule.

The One: Rex Asher

Rex has been our boy name pick since I was pregnant with Juliet. We used our first pick obviously on Drake, and then had a hard time finding an equally loved match for it. In truth the two other male names I adore, Griffin and Hunter, were given to our first babies (our cats) long before Drake ever came into the picture. After realizing how nicely those names were paired with Drake’s name, I cursed and briefly considered renaming the cats. Mr Chocolate actually came up with Rex and I admit it took me some time to come around to it. I even wrote to the Name Lady about my concern but in time it really did grow on me… I also imagined doing a fabulous dinosaur nursery afterwards! Had Fiona been a boy she would have been Rex Karl (after my dad) but if we have another son now I’ll use Asher as it’s a family name of Mr Chocolate’s that I happen to love.

Honorable Mentions:

  • Brooks
  • Tristan
  • Xavier
  • Jasper
  • Baron
  • Everett
  • Kellan
  • Dashiell
  • Cole
  • Hudson

So what names do you love and are holding on hoping to use?  Any new names I need to add to my lists for future pets?