5.19.2012

The names game. Take two.

Well, it turned into a monumental task. But at this hour, on this day … We have a name for our second child.

Like Phoebe’s name, it’s a name we’d never considered until the time came to make a decision. And like Phoebe’s name, at least part of the name is derived from our family tree.

But unlike Phoebe’s name, this one took a long time to come to terms on.

I’ve told this story many times: Almost as soon as we learned Phoebe was on the way, we began brainstorming names over dinner at a café. Phoebe was the first name we wrote down and we fell in love with it immediately. We liked that it was a name from the Bible, and it was on Kates’ family tree.

This time around, once we learned we were having another girl, we thought That’s great! There’s a ton of girls names we like! … Since Phoebe came from Kates’ family tree, the plan all along was to select the name for our second child from my family tree, boy or girl.

But picking another girl’s name, it turned out, wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be.

With Phoebe, we might have set the bar a little high. Because this time around, we also felt pressure to come up with a name that is as unique.

We were quick to agree on the middle name for Baby 2 after someone in my family. But the challenge was finding a first name that complemented the middle.

We discussed and ruled out Ingrid, Gretchen, Greta and Amelia. We also discussed Lydia and Naomi, but decided against those because of people in our circles with those names. We considered Sarah, but ruled it out because Kates has a cousin of the same name.

There was a fleeting moment when we both liked Rachel. Then we decided the whole connection to Phoebe and Rachel on “Friends” would be too weird.

Nor will the baby's name be Anna, Elizabeth or Emma.

There was a stretch when Molly and Clara were serious contenders. But their stock eventually dropped.

We pored over our family tree, looking for any name that might trigger something. And with that Ancestry.com has become my new obsession … In the last few days, I’ve mapped out nearly my entire family tree, going back five generations. Fun stuff!

The more time that passed without us coming to a decision, the more we began to worry we might have to settle on one of Phoebe’s suggested names: Baby Bear Rapunzel, Rainbow Rapunzel, Rainbow Barbie Rapunzel, or her most recent suggestion Rainbow Marshmallow.

And last weekend, when our pastor talked about Moses' mother, Jochebed, in his sermon, Kates and I looked at each other with thoughts of At this point, anything's possible.

Finally, last night, as we continued our name discussions over a relaxing dinner on our deck, Kates mentioned a name that recently appealed to her. I sat back in my chair and smiled. It worked. It clicked. I liked it. … We slept on it. Talked about it more today. And agreed tonight that it’s the one.

So here are some hints. The first name is a one-syllable name derived from Middle English. It’s not on our family tree -- as far as we can tell -- and it’s not in the Bible, although it has something of a religious origin. Rankings show the name is almost nonexistant today, with its popularity dropping significantly in the 1970s. However, it is the name of a character in one of our favorite movies, which hit theaters in 1996.

And for good measure, just in case the ultrasound reading was wrong and we’re surprised with a boy, we’ve got a boy’s name on standby -- and it‘s different than the boy‘s name we had picked out had Phoebe been a boy. This time, our boy’s name is derived from a Latin name with wide use in Germany. It’s a name Kates liked early on, but it wasn’t until I found it on my family tree that I started to warm up to it. It’s not a Bible name, but it’s a great, venerable name with some strong nickname possibilities.

So there you have it. We’ll provide you with answers to these questions and more when Baby 2 arrives.

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