Names

We took many things into consideration when selecting our children's names. One was that we didn't want their names to be too popular. We didn't want them to constantly be running into other children with the same name. Thus far we've only met one other Nadia so I'd say we definitely succeeded in that regard with her name. Even though Ian has been around 70th place in popularity for boys the past few years, we have run into other Ian's his age (there were a few in the NICU when he was born!). Still, I don't think it's going to be a problem. It's not like there's another Ian in the nursery or something like that.

Another thing we took into consideration was ease of spelling. I have seen people spell Ian's name with an "E" instead of an "i," which phonetically makes sense, but most people who have the name Ian spell it with an "I." I did have a student once who spelled his name Ean. Nadia's name is spelled correctly most of the time as well, but it has been spelled incorrectly by two people. One librarian spelled her name with a "t" instead of a "d," and Paul's cousin's wife spelled her name with a "y" after the "d." No one has trouble spelling Paul or Ruth. Our kids' names aren't quite as easy to spell as ours, but still it hasn't been much of an issue for either child thus far.

A third consideration we had was whether people would be tempted to change their name (nickname). We didn't want that to happen if at all possible. Thus far no one has tried to modify Ian's name. One person has given Nadia a nickname. Her gymnastics' teacher called her "Nad" for a few weeks. I thought it sounded awful, and I was so torn whether to say something. Thankfully she went back to calling her Nadia without me saying anything. Whew. Hopefully no one else will modify her name as we like it just the way it is! If Nadia's wish comes true and she has a baby sister, we plan on naming her Deborah Marie. Neither of our children's names came from family members, but Deborah would be after Paul's mom's sister, and Marie is my mom's middle name. We are okay with Deborah being made into a nickname of Deb or Debbie. It's not that we are totally opposed to nicknames, but in some instances we only liked the proper name and didn't like a common nickname for that name and because of that we avoided the name altogether.

We haven't begun to discuss a possible boy's name if we have another son. If I see two lines next month then we might start discussing possible names again. At least we'd only have to come up with a boy's name since we already have a girl's name picked out. If the pattern held true, our next baby would be a boy. I say that because when I was pregnant with Nadia we only had a boy's name picked out (Ian Alexander) and after we found the gender out we got serious about picking a girl's name. The second time around we had a girl's name picked out (Deborah Marie) and for awhile had decided against Ian Alexander because of a negative connotation we feared another relative would have with the name Ian. So both times when we found out the gender, we had a name picked out for the other gender. I'm trying so hard to keep my hopes in check, but it would be wonderful if the Lord allows us to have one last child in 2012. If any of you were praying for my friend, Jo, I am happy to report that the Lord did provide them with the finances they need to do ivf again in a few months! I'm praying we'll both give birth next year!

P.S. As you can see, PictureMe posted our photos on the website today. I bought some prints yesterday of the first and third photos in this post. I'll share a few more tomorrow.