Show Us Your Life - Kid's Names

Today is Show Us Your Life - Kid's Names over at Kelly's Korner.

Since I have kids names I figured I'd share how our kids got their names. I was totally a little girl who always had names picked out. When my mom was pregnant with my sister I used to look through baby books. I would come up with themes and try to figure out what names I would choose if I decided to name my kids in alphabetical order. Or what I would choose if I had twins (always girl twins, never boys).

Brian and I are also not name sharers. I wrote a post about it while I was pregnant with Reese, but I just don't like to share names before babies are born. I don't want someone who's really important to us to have an obvious disdain for a name that changes my mind. If you hate the name, deal with it (it's rough, I know)! I'm not naming my kid Apple. Or Sunshine. You might hate the name, but you love the baby. And you'll hate the name less once you're holding my baby in your arms.

Wyatt Allan

Wyatt's name was hard! Boys names are a lot less fun than girls names (to me anyway). Brian and I made a list of first names that we liked when we found out we were having a boy. We always knew that Allan was going to be the middle name. Allan is Brian's Dad's name and Brian's middle name. For first names, Wyatt could have been a Braeden or Hayden and in my opinion we had pretty much settled on Braeden. Then one day we were riding in the car and Brian said "You know, I really like what Kurt Russell named his son." I was confused. I only knew one of Kurt Russell's sons' names and that was Boston. I thought Brian had lost his mind. Die hard Yankees fans do not name their sons Boston. Or Teddy (which I think is adorable, but is out of the question). So I told him that. And he said "No, his son with Goldie Hawn is named Wyatt, after Earp." Besides being confused as to why my husband knew this and I, the queen of gossip magazines did not, I wasn't sure how I felt about the name. I couldn't picture myself calling my son "Wyatt" on the playground. Braeden, yes. Wyatt, no.

We went away for the weekend about a month before Wyatt was born and something changed. I suddenly really liked Wyatt. So while we were sitting in a Friendly's in Williamsburg waiting for my dessert (no wonder I gained 60 pounds) I told Brian that the baby's name would be Wyatt Allan. He was skeptical because he wanted me to like the name as much as he did. And I suddenly did. I thought it was the perfect name for our little boy (and he kicked whenever I said it). We knew it was fate the next day when we got to Brian's parents house to pick up Noelle and they were watching Wyatt Earp (yeah, the Kevin Costner Wyatt Earp movie, not the Kurt Russell Tombstone movie). And it was a perfect choice because Wyatt is definitely a Wyatt!

But this is not the name Brian has had picked out for a boy since he was little. So that name is still on the table for number 3.

Reese Lynn Noelle

Reese was the girl name that we decided on before we knew that Wyatt was a boy. Actually, Reese was a girl name that we decided on before we got married. I just really liked the name (yes, Reese Witherspoon is where I first heard the name, but not what inspired me to choose it. I like her, but not enough to name my kid after her specifically). Surprisingly, Brian really liked it too. So as soon as we got around to talking about baby names (which we didn't do much of because we were waiting to find out what Wyatt was), we knew that if it was a girl her name was Reese. Well, it wasn't a girl that time(ha!).

When we found our we were having a girl the second time, we knew we really liked the name Reese. But knowing that we were actually having a girl opened me up to exploring other girl names. We both also really liked the name Ryan for a girl, but we liked Reese more. I had a dream that her name was Addison, but Brian vetoed it. It reminds him of Private Practice and he thinks Kate Walsh makes funny faces and for whatever reason, that eliminated Addison. We also liked Avery and Taylor (and Brian pushed for Willow), but finally realized we didn't like any of the names more than we liked Reese. Then came the middle name issue. I felt like the name Reese needed a longer middle name. Brian really wanted to use my middle name (Lynn), but I didn't think it was long enough. Then we thought about Noelle. We both love Noelle's name and thought Reese Noelle sounded great....but there was the naming our baby after our dog issue. We don't think it's that weird. We love our dog. She was Brian's best friend for over 15 years. And we don't think Reese would have ever felt weird about it because she would know more than anybody that while we named her after our dog, we love Noelle so much and she meant the world to us. So I was on board for both and left the final decision to Brian. He couldn't make the decision either! I suggested that we give her two middle names, but Brian wasn't sure he liked it. So the night before she was born we settled on Reese Lynn. And then we experienced the devastating loss of Noelle in December. I decided then that she was going to have two middle names, and I "gave" Brian that gift as a Christmas present. But I think we actually gave it to Reese because she has a beautiful name that means so much to us!

And that's how the two that are already born got their names. We have discussed names for number 3, but are far from settling on anything. Then add in the fact that we are leaning heavily towards being surprised, and that opens up a whole new can of worms! We actually have to agree on two names now? There's a (new) girl name that we love, but we'll just have to see. It's a good thing that we have 6 months (from today) until baby number 3 is due!