Are we keeping it from you?

I guess I should address the question that seems to be one that many people share... "Are we keeping it from you?" That is, are we going to tell people the names we like or when the time comes, the names we choose?

It's a good question, really. I don't blame people at all for asking. I have asked the same thing when it comes to talking to the few people I've known who were expecting their own baby. It used to surprise me when I would get a hesitant response with no real answer. It made me wonder things like "are you just that unsure of the name you picked?" or "you're making this way too hard. it's just a name!"

Oh how ignorance is bliss!

Here's the thing... We're not exactly keeping it from you as much as we are scared to tell you. We have told a few people our initial list of names we like and have gotten mixed results. Oh, don't get me wrong, everyone is excited about the topic and it's a lot of fun to see their reactions and take in the energy they give.

However, amongst all the fun there are still comments that come out (some joking and some not) that when taken one at a time are not a big deal, but they start to weigh down the excitement a little. Some of the comments I have received so far (some more often than others) **:

"I knew a _______ once and she was a spoiled brat."
"______ for a girl?"
"______ for a boy?"
"______? Isn't that a last name?"
"______? Isn't that a dog's name?"
"______? Like the cheese?"
and last, but not least...
"If you name your boy ______, he'll grow up to be gay, (pause) not that there is anything wrong with that."

Having said that, there are useful comments we've received too, along the lines of:

"Kids will make fun of _____ because it rhymes with _____."
"H_____ I_____ Vincent? You might want to rethink that!"
"There are just too many ways to spell ______, she'll be spelling her name for people her whole life!"
"______ is a fine, but people will call him _____ for short and that sucks."

So even though we haven't shared our names with a lot of people, I can now understand why those who I have asked in the past were hesitant to tell. When it comes down to it, we're not going to make everyone happy with whatever name we pick, but even the critics will fall in love with a name once they fall in love with the baby!

You're probably now thinking "yeah, yeah, yeah, but you didn't answer the question" so now I will do just that... I will share the names we're thinking of as soon as Michael and I come up with middle names to go with them. Our game plan is to pick our top three names (for each gender) and choose middle names for each. Then we'll see where that takes us. I have to keep you guys in suspense, you know?! =)

For now, would you settle for knowing what our initial favorite names were? Kaitlyn and Aidan were by far our favorite names at the beginning, so much so that I didn't think we would have to address the topic again. However, we have since found out that everyone else in the world also loves those names and if there is one thing we've learned from being Jennifer and Michael, it's that we don't want a super-common name for our baby!


** Disclaimer: If you're one of the people who have given one of the responses listed above, please do not be upset that I used it as an example. I know that everyone involved in the process has the best of intentions and that sometimes these comments are meant in a joking manner and spoken with a smile. That's the disadvantage of blogging... though I can type a blog entry with a smile, it gets lost in translation somewhere amongst the fuzzy cloud we call Internet.