I have always loved names. When I was a kid, I had a notebook (which eventually spread into 2 notebooks - one boy, one girl) where I "collected" names and used them in the stories I liked to write. I really was into unusual names, but they had to be "pretty" too.
I went through phases where I had favorites - and they were often a little "different." I was hyper in love with the name "Chandelay" when I was 14. It was "Angili" before that. And before that it was "Jessi." When I was very young (back when I thought I wanted 6 kids) I had a list a mile long of what I was going to name them.
When Daddy Fuss and I were married we got to talking about the eventual names of our hypothetical children. We were really into the TV show "House" and I loved Dr. Allison Cameron. We decided pretty early on to name our first daughter "Cameron." We were so incredibly happy with this choice. I pictured nicknaming her "Cam" and "Cammie", but mostly I loved the full name Cameron.
When we mentioned that possibility in passing to his family one day, they were less than thrilled. But seeing as we weren't pregnant or even trying at the time, we let it drop and decided we wouldn't discuss it any further. That is until my BFF, K, decided to name her second son Cameron. I was bummed, ("I didn't steal your name!" she cried when I told her we had been planning to use it for a girl the day she told me about her choice) but Daddy Fuss didn't want to make a change because of that, but I felt funny about it.
(as a side note: we had Cameron as a middle name for one of our top5 choices when we were naming The Fuss. I felt like if we wanted to use it, it was our right, but that I wanted to clear it casually with K. We had a lovely talk one morning and without asking her permission, I felt like she was okay with it at the end of our conversation and felt so relieved. We didn't end up using it, since the name we chose really just jumped out as the right choice, but at the time I was so happy that she was okay with the thought. I still love the name, but don't feel the need to have my child use it anymore. Who knows if that will change?)
- Weird, this is not at all where I thought this post was going... huh.... -
When we were trying to decide on a name for The Fuss I liked to play around with them on paper - I'd practice writing them, play with the initials, nicknames, etc. My SILs were over one day and ended up snooping just a touch (the notebook was on the couch, but not open) and saw some of the names we were considering. (I had a long list of 70 names when we got pregnant - my husband said he wouldn't look at it until it was MUCH shorter - I got it down to 25, then 20, then 5 and we messed with the list of 5 several times before settleing on the one that to this day is completely perfect for her). When I fifgured out that they had seen it, I decided to make a dummy page for the next time they were snooping. I picked some names that I thought were pretty, but were rather unusual and not really ideal for our last name, etc. I did the same with them that I'd done previously and the next time my SILs were over, I know they peeked again. I know they were freaked out when we eventually decided to announce the name we had chosen. The relief on J's face, especially, was very obvious. She actually said "oh! I really like that!" as if she was surprised by that fact.
My older SIL who has a kid the same age as The Fuss named her what I consider to be a very 80's name. She's expecting child #2 at the end of the summer, and I joked around about her potential choices for this new baby if it's a girl, too. (They aren't finding out ahead of time.) Apparently, I nailed one of the top choices with my knowledge of name trends. It's a top sibling name pairing to her first daughter's name. :)
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