I don't know his name!

Today Claire wanted to know her baby brother's name. She asked, "What baby brother's name? I don't know his name!" TOO CUTE! Well, we don't know it either. We are completely clueless. Ha...we didn't name Claire until less than 2 weeks before I was due, and even then, we weren't entirely sure.

I don't really like specific name suggests from family members like, "You should name the baby XXXXXXXXXX because so-and-so was named that." That is a complete and 100% total turn-off for me. Those names will go on a "Definitely will not name list." I want something semi-original, yet classic. I want something that people will recognize, but it's not like in the top 10. I like traditional spellings. Plus we can't please everyone by picking a name one family member liked. So in order to keep things fair, we will just avoid all of those types of suggestions.

I also don't like names that have overly unique spellings or are trendy. Super-trendy spellings just make the parents look like they can't spell. For example, Jackson should be spelled Jackson, not "Jaxsin." I was a teacher. I've seen it. It just makes the parents look like they didn't know how to spell the name. Trendy names are just plain stupid IMHO. I don't think a name like "Blade" would look good on his job resume in about 20 years.

I've read the entire boys name section of our baby name book over and there is not one single solitary name in there that I like. NOT ONE. Not even one that I USED to like but then some student with that name came and ruined it. I just don't LOVE any boy's names like I do girl's names. I also hate city names like Austin or Dallas or whatever. Those fall under the lines of trendy. A hot new girl name is "London." Really. City names are for cities. People names are for people. It also drives me nuts when people name pets real people names instead of something animal-appropriate like Spot or Fluffy. So this is sort of turning into a rant. DANG IT. WHY ISN'T THERE A SINGLE BOY NAME THAT I LIKE!!! I'm sure we'll think of something in the next few months...

But as a teacher, I don't want a name that people haven't seen before or won't know how to pronounce. I don't want him to have to spell his name every time he gives it. I also don't want people to say "What's his name?" with a funny look when I tell them his name. I've seen moms do this to other moms and it's so terrible. I also don't like anything that could be gender-neutral like "Sam" or "Pat." It makes me think of that Pat character that used to be on SNL.

I guess I'm pretty opinionated. I don't like "job" names like Mason because of the meanings behind them. Are all the poor Masons in the world destined to lay bricks? Probably not because most people don't really look into the meanings of names. I generally don't like last names as first names, although there are a few that work well as first names.

So what do I like? I do like most biblical names, but not the funky, hard-to-spell ones that nobody knows how to read. I like Josh, but I don't like the Jr. thing. I think the baby needs to be his own, original person, not version 2.0.

Claire has suggest Oscar and Elmo for the baby. Ha. Nope. She also likes Falcor which is from the movie Labyrinth, but again, nope! I like a lot of German names like Johann, but would never do that to my kid, living in the US. It would never get spelled or pronounced right.

Any suggestions that go well with Starr? Watch out for initials. Don't want to be spelling PMS or ASS or GAS. geesh...