Names, Names, Names...

The baby naming process is a frustrating one. We have our boy names still...they've changed just a smidge, but are essentially the same few names that we've liked for a while. Girl names, however, have been brutal. Every time we find one, two, three that we like, something changes our minds. There is one name in particular that I love, but I just don't think that we'll use it. For that reason, it was back to the drawing board...or to Half-Price Books to peruse the baby name books, in our case. From one particular book, we were happily reminded of a name that was on our list ages ago and somehow got forgotten. Who is to say that it won't change next week; it likely will.

Here is my problem: I don't care much for the long, ultra-feminine, flowery names. There is nothing wrong with them, it's just a personal thing. Some fairly feminine names, I do like. Mostly, what I love falls in the "no-frills" or "boyish" categories. Adam tends to lean more toward the semi-feminine names, so we're in a pickle. In the baby name book that we ended up buying (one which had categories such as 'no frills' and 'boyish'), I found the following poem. I thought it was cute, so I'm sharing.

Now I wonder what would please her,
Charlotte, Julia, or Louisa?
Ann and Mary, they're too common;
Joan's too formal for a woman;
Jane's a prettier name beside:
But we had a Jane who died.
They would say, if 'twas Rebecca,
That she was a little Quaker,
Edith's pretty, but that looks
Better in old English books.
Ellen's left off long ago;
Blanche is out of fashion now.
None that I have named as yet
Are so good as Margaret.
Emily is neat and fine.
What do you think of Caroline?

-Charles Lamb