Thursday Thirteen: Baby Names I'd Consider

Gee, it's been all of maybe a week since I mentioned the fact that I'm not pregnant yet. You guys thought maybe you were off the hook, right? Sorry.



I spend a lot of time thinking about hypothetical names for babies I might have. It started back when my stepbrother and his wife had their second child, a boy, and gave him the middle name Mars. When my mother told me that, I said, "Mars?"



"Yes," she said. "Like the God of War."



"Or like the candy bar," I said.



This was my thought: you've got nine whole months to be thinking ahead. Why would you be put on the spot at the very end and name your kid after a candy bar? Trina seems to have infected me with her angst about asinine spellings of names, usually names that should never have been considered to begin with. Mykayla Trynyty, and all.



So, in honor of not being pregnant and Thursday Thirteen, I present Thirteen Baby Names I'd Consider.



1. Tyler. Old English, means "Tiler of roofs." Whatever. I'm not that hung up on the meaning. The website I consulted says that this is a unisex name, but I don't see naming a girl Tyler.



2. Camille. Latin, means "Attendant at a Religious Service." I think this is a cute, very feminine name for a girl.



3. Evan. Welsh, a shortened form of John. Reminds me of a guy I had a crush on in high school. Dreamy, with beautiful eyes.



4. Allison. Old German, means "noble, truth." I love the Elvis Costello song called "Allison." I'm not sure if that's a good reason to name a baby Allison, but I was always sad as a kid that there was never anything with my name on it. This lucky kid gets her own song.



5. Jackson. Here's the problem with it though: it is so ridiculously trendy now, I would kick myself forever for naming a baby Jackson, and ensuring that he would be one of about eleven Jacksons in his preschool class. It works with our last name though.



6. Lucy. One of my favorite names forever, since Lucy Van Pelt in "Peanuts." There's a character named Lucy in a series of books that I used to like a lot but has gone downhill a lot in past years.



7. Luke. Greek, means "From Luciana," which our kid clearly would not be. Luke is the name of one of my favorite characters in all of literature, Luke Wingo from "The Prince of Tides" by Pat Conroy. Max came dangerously close to being Luke, and when I met Pat Conroy at a book signing a couple of years ago and he was goo-gooing my son, I told him that. He told me that he hears that a lot, that and Savannah, who is Luke's sister in the book.



8. Ella. Speaking of things that Max almost was, if he'd been a girl, he would have been Ella instead of Maxwell. My grandmother, who died just after I found out I was pregnant, was named Luella, which is just a little too much name for a baby. If we had a girl, this is probably what we'd go with.



9. Beckett. Dan is not down with Beckett. He thinks it sounds San Francisco Post-Modernist Asshole. I don't personally think there's anything wrong with San Francisco Post-Modernist Asshole, but, as he points out, it's not really who we are. Nevertheless, I am currently obsessed with Beckett.



10. Megan. Greek, means "pearl." Again, this is not one that Dan is on board with. He knew a Megan when he was in college and thought she was a big S&M freak. I guess she's a real estate agent now, though, which just goes to show that you can raise a big S&M freak and she'll eventually turn out okay.



11. Owen. Welsh, means "well born." I am not sure why I like this name, but I think it goes well with our last name and it just sounds like a good little-brother name.



12. Kate. This is so old-fashioned and simple, and still so girly-sounding. Kate is the girl who always has her hair in a ponytail and multi-tasks well. Everyone likes that about Kate.



13. Wyatt. Nobody thinks this is a good name but me. I think it is a total rock star of a name.



Make sure you go check out Kimberly's Thursday Thirteen. Next week is her turn to choose.