Naming a human being...

This is a very important task, no? Why some people give their offspring ridiculously "youneek" names is beyond me. I mean, I understand not wanting your child to have the same name as lots of other kids in their class at school but...there's got to be a middle ground between common and well...out there.

And what's really wrong with a classic name? They may be "common", yes, but are really respectable and strong. Like: William, Henry, Michael and Elizabeth, Catherine, and...ummm some other classic girl name (drawing a blank here).

Anyway...you won't catch us with a little Nevaeh or Jocshwahh running around.

We're pretty much set on a girl name and about 90% on a boy name. For some reason, the boy name was so much harder for us to choose and agree on. For a girl, we wanted a first name that started with an M (because me, my mom, and her mom all have an "M" name. For a middle name, we had a couple family names floating around but I wanted to incorporate DH in it too (his nickname is Alex). So we chose and agreed on Melanie Alexa for a girl.

For a boy we didn't use any tradition/family stuff because there was nothing we really loved. We went back and forth trying out names out loud... "c'mere Justin!"..."Gabriel, look at mommy!"..."what's wrong Daniel?" I don't know, they just didn't fit. Anyway, we randomly found some names that we both liked and played with various combinations and ended up with Ethan Bryce. We both really like this name and we may keep it permanently.

Now, how these names sound coming out of the mouth of our Spanish-speaking family members may be a different story. Melanie Alexa will definitely roll off the tongue beautifully in Spanish...but Ethan Bryce...not so much. But you know what? When you finally come to some kind of agreement and you're both happy with a name, sometimes you can't think of how others will pronounce it. Take DH's cousin...they just named their new son Jacob. Love the name! But they know that Spanish speaking family will change that to Jacobo...the Spanish version, pronounced "ha-co-bo"...yup. There's no Spanish version of Ethan so hopefully we're ok lol.