Tuesday, September 01, 2009
The Name: The First Casualties
So continuing the story from Saturday evening, after the girls were in bed, I was reading, but Shelly wanted to talk. So I went downstairs and got the paper on which I had written the List of 56. We started going through them one by one. Shelly offered comments ranging from "Eh..." to "I like that one" to "No."
Going through it the first time, Shelly exercised her veto power (I didn't have any veto power over this list, since I had compiled it and presumably had excluded any names I would have vetoed from it when I did so) over a few names. Since they were all names that were borderline for me anyway, I acquiesced. The following names were axed (in order of 2008 popularity):
Grace - Shelly can't pronounce this name without a thick Southern accent, and always makes it "Gracie." When she says it like that, I can't deny her a veto.
Vanessa - We both admitted we can only think of Vanessa Huxatable.
Charlotte - Shelly has nothing against the city - she just isn't keen on the name.
Angela - Shelly doesn't like the short form Angie, which will definitely come up, and I agree if we're going to have another name that ends with -ie or a similar sound, there are better candidates.
Piper - I'm not sure why I put that one on my list in the first place.
Lila - Just an odd name, I suppose.
Violet - Shelly doesn't like nature names, of which flower names are a subcategory.
Clara - It's the name of a cow (and one good friend of mine from high school).
Hope - Shelly's not big on virtue names, and I agreed that Faith is greater than Hope (incidentally, Charity, supposedly the greatest of all, didn't even make the List of 56...)
Josie - Shelly insisted that it would have to be a short form of Josephine, and that realization made me vote against it as much as Shelly.
Cora - "No."
Alice - Shelly can only think of the Brady Bunch housekeeper, whereas I think of Wonderland. I only let it go because it's too close to Elise.
April - But since she'll be born in January, maybe Jan as a middle name! (Or is that too Brady Bunch?)
Helen - Shelly has no respect for ancient Greece. And it sounds a lot like Ellie.
Norah - As with Cora, apparently it's the "or" sound that is offensive.
Marie - We already had Mary and Maria on the list; the Frenchies lose.
Tess - Tessa > Tess.
Going through it the first time, Shelly exercised her veto power (I didn't have any veto power over this list, since I had compiled it and presumably had excluded any names I would have vetoed from it when I did so) over a few names. Since they were all names that were borderline for me anyway, I acquiesced. The following names were axed (in order of 2008 popularity):
Grace - Shelly can't pronounce this name without a thick Southern accent, and always makes it "Gracie." When she says it like that, I can't deny her a veto.
Vanessa - We both admitted we can only think of Vanessa Huxatable.
Charlotte - Shelly has nothing against the city - she just isn't keen on the name.
Angela - Shelly doesn't like the short form Angie, which will definitely come up, and I agree if we're going to have another name that ends with -ie or a similar sound, there are better candidates.
Piper - I'm not sure why I put that one on my list in the first place.
Lila - Just an odd name, I suppose.
Violet - Shelly doesn't like nature names, of which flower names are a subcategory.
Clara - It's the name of a cow (and one good friend of mine from high school).
Hope - Shelly's not big on virtue names, and I agreed that Faith is greater than Hope (incidentally, Charity, supposedly the greatest of all, didn't even make the List of 56...)
Josie - Shelly insisted that it would have to be a short form of Josephine, and that realization made me vote against it as much as Shelly.
Cora - "No."
Alice - Shelly can only think of the Brady Bunch housekeeper, whereas I think of Wonderland. I only let it go because it's too close to Elise.
April - But since she'll be born in January, maybe Jan as a middle name! (Or is that too Brady Bunch?)
Helen - Shelly has no respect for ancient Greece. And it sounds a lot like Ellie.
Norah - As with Cora, apparently it's the "or" sound that is offensive.
Marie - We already had Mary and Maria on the list; the Frenchies lose.
Tess - Tessa > Tess.
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