What’s in a name?

We are expecting the arrival any day now of our second child and our first boy. We are excited and nervous about the changes that are to surely take place in the next few weeks and months.

Just like naming a company or picking a website url there are so many factors to consider. Does it sound good when you just say the first name. What about the first name with the middle name? Are there too many syllables? Is it too common, is it too rare? Will people get it? Is there bad connotations with the name, will the name be fitting during all stages of life? Just a few considerations when pouring over the long list of potential names.

When I came up with TonkaPark.com it just fit. It was professional sounding, drew from Ha Ha Tonka State Park which is right here in Camdenton, Mo, and it of course was available as a dot com address. Also everyone thinks it is cool.

Our daughter Ava got her name at the last minute 21 months ago. We had a difficult time but in the end her name fit and Ava Amalie (a-molly) is the sweetest thing you will ever meet.

We have narrowed the names down for our boy. But as our family knows by now, we like to wait to share the name we have chosen until we meet our child face to face. But to give our family something to think about and help get everyone excited about our son we have a sort of game. So if you look at the picture you will see that we bought some letters with some names in mind. We painted all the letters so that they are ready regardless of the name we give our first son. See what names you can find. Are we going with a pattern of all A names, or single syllable names or no pattern at all? Have fun.