No Baby Fever Here

But I can't get baby names off my mind. I don't obsess about the boy names too much - it would be either Theodore or Luther, with a middle name of William.

But the girl names.

Oh, the girl names.

Frilly or tomboy? Classic or modern? Recognizable or unique?  There are so many to choose from, plus it has to live up to and complement Petal's name. I personally think we knocked it out of the park when we named Petal and I don't want her (theoretical) younger sister's name to be any less special.

Plus, working around a rarely heard one-syllable German surname that sounds like an English verb AND noun has proved to be challenging. Since our last name starts with a V, anything ending or starting with the V sound is out. Farewell Eve, Vanessa, Victoria, Genevieve, we hardly knew ye.

Then there's my self-imposed rules. The first name must be phonetic and have only one common spelling - I don't want any Sara vs. Sarah confusion. (I'm more lenient with the middle name.) The name cannot sound  similar to the name of any family members (again, I am more lenient with the middle name.) Emma and Clara/Clarissa are out thanks to cousins Emily and Claire, and there will be no little Cora since Jack's brother's name is Cory.

Poor Jack had no idea what he was in for when he married such a name aficionado. The summer we got together, we spent a weekend on Cape Cod with a group of my friends. When the ladies indulged themselves in a languid chat about names they'd like to give their future children, I bit my tongue and forbade myself to participate. I was dying to jump in but I didn't want Jack to think I was a baby-crazed ring chaser. I managed to hide my yearning for offspring for the next year, until the following summer. We were hiking in Yellowstone National Park as part of our cross-country goodbye-college-hello-Army extravaganza, and I felt comfortable enough to declare that I wanted to have children in the future. Four of them.

Ha. I am SO not cut out to be a large brood mama. Petal is getting precisely ONE sibling, so I've got to make sure his/her name is perfect.