thinking of names

we had this baby's name all picked out and ready to go, then i ran into a lady at the library who i can tolerate in small amounts of time, and she had used the name for her newborn son, and the name disappeared- it wasn't even on my radar anymore. and i wasn't sad or disappointed even. i was ready to move on and find a new one.

someone commented on jedi's blog how maybe once this baby has a name he will stand on his own. i think that's why i feel kind of restless lately. i never stress so early about a name. 21 weeks- still is early in my opinion.

so, here is a list of names we've thought of...(pause while i dig out my phone and scroll through my texts- we text possibilities, it's a running list)- oh, and not all of these names come from the same serious mind. some are meant to be a joke and we wouldn't use but for a momentary laugh.

at first we had an italian theme going- to remind us of our italian holiday.
luca- the name of an italian we met in cortina.
constantine- name of the first christian emperor, his mom was st. helen.
octavius- means "the eighth":) and in the movie "night at the museum2" he's jedidiah's little roman friend.
otto- means "eight" in italian.
valentino/valentine- name of the hotel bartender in rome.
totti- azurri soccer player
del piero- another azurri soccer player

we got away from the italian theme and moved on...
john karol- a shout out to both the late JP2 and our nation's first bishop.
michael- defender:)
augustine- not as a first name, i could throw a rock from my house and hit at least 2baby augustines (or 'gus') but that would just be cruel. but in actuality i know offhand at least 5 augustines under the age of 4. too hot for us to use as a first name.
bartholamew
joachim
ignatius
alphonsus- got to keep my in-laws upset at me over names. they were trying to offer names over july 4th weekend- white bread names like "paul" or "wesley". nice try.
ezekiel
simon
matthias
jude(chris doesn't like this one at all)
barnabas
ralph
becket- st. thomas becket
bruno- my brother's birthday is on his feast day:)
felix
callistus- are we back to italian/latin names again?
cosmas
theodore
josephat;)
sylvester
stephen
robert- i like baby bob.
frederick
landon donovan- do i have to 'splain?
caspar
balthazar
melchior
three kings anyone?
martin- the kids' FAVORITE- because he is the redwall hero!!! a friend named her kid martin, but pronounced marteen because they are latin/am. and that's a very nice way to get away from people calling your kid 'marty'. i don't love 'marty'.

names from around due date...and beyond(we are all aware of my tendancy to go 'late')
clement
andrew
xavier(LOVE the french pronunciation of this name- if only i were french!)
nicholas
ambrose
juan:)
john cruz (how i would name a kid if i wanted to name him after john of the cross- my favorite male carmelite)

names from around conception date
damian
polycarp
drexel
casimir
cyril

this website is fun for name picking-
ugh- the list continues to grow. chris already has a favorite but i can feel the heavy sigh from my in laws already so i am sitting on it. i am not sold on it but it does grow on me. my mother in law told me many years ago- that if i came up with a name she didn't like, she'd buy a dog and name it that so when the baby was born we wouldn't be able to use the same name as their dog. that is when we decided to stop being so generous with our thoughts:)
AND- since our last name is 'A' we have to think of initials because invariably there is some sort of association or administration or 'of america' group.

here is the way it's stacked up so far- we kind of take turns, based on gender.
i named henry- he picked middle james
he named samantha- i picked middle grace
he named maximilian- i picked middle thomas
i named george- he picked middle aloysius
i named mary- he picked middle jane
we both named frances and he picked middle marie
he picked jedidiah- i picked middle joseph
i think it's my turn.