Names

Dharma: "So if it's a boy, we'll name him Joe, or Bill, or Dan...if it's a girl, she will be Sunshine Space-Tweezers!" Greg: "See! It's cute on a girl!"

I loved the whole conversation at the beginning of that episode of Dharma & Greg when they were discussing what to name Abby and Larry's new baby...Dogwood, Tether Ball, TAR!! That last was pounced on when Greg suggested that anything other than a normal name would get the tar kicked out of the boy on the playground at school. Bizarre names are fine...for a GIRL. But not for boys. My husband believed this to the core of his being! The boy's name should be strong, yet simple...and should not leave ANY room for ridicule from other kids. He wanted Joe, Tom, Jack (oops, his brother already used that one). I wanted something more unique and exotic for our first born.

To give you an idea...here is the original Baby Name poll we sent to all our family and friends for their feedback: Help Us Pick A Name! This was before we knew the sex of the baby. (Wow! I can't believe the links are still live after 3 years! WTG BabyCenter!)

Here is the second one we did once we knew it was a boy: Help Us Pick A Name - Part 2!

Tee Hee! OK...that second one was a gag. We had gotten SO frustrated over our inability to pick a name we could both agree on, I went a little off the deep end. Funny thing, my friends and family thought that poll was FOR REAL! What does that say about me? Hmm. I bought about a dozen baby name books and highlighted all the names that appealed to me. John read through my selections and said no to almost every one of them. We were running out of time!

Then the big surprise...our baby arrived 3 weeks early! As we scrambled to get our crud together and get to the hospital, John had the forethought to print out the top 10 baby names for the last 3 years (two copies of each year). We each went down our list copies and crossed out all the names we didn't like. It was a pretty fast elimination! The only name we had left in common between each of our list copies? Tyler! We hadn't even considered that name before. And so our little guy was proudly named...Tyler Kamehameha! [giggle] Sorry, couldn't resist. Tyler John! Our little miracle baby.