How We Choose Baby Names...Guess our Baby's Name

There was an article posted awhile back about how with Catholic Baby Names, Old is the New New.

Well, we aren't hip and we don't name our babies like that. 

Some people choose family names.  Some people choose saint names.  I'm not worried about choosing a saint name because just about every name is a saint name or derivative thereof. 

We just choose names that we like and we have a few rules.  And the rules are different for boys versus girls.  

The names of our born children are:

Heidi Marie (patron saint = St Adelaide)

Greta Marie (patron saint = St. Margaret)

John de la Croix (patron saint = St. John of the Cross)

Elsa Rose (patron saint = St. Elizabeth)

Girl Rules:

-Must be Germanic/Swedish sounding to go with our last name

-Must not be too common, must not have been in the top 100 most popular names in recent years.

-Must not be so unusual no one has ever heard of it.

-Must be a real name...no made up names.

-Must pass the substitute teacher test.  In other words, it must be easily recognizable/pronounceable and spellable.

-Must not be too weird or remind someone of a female wrestler (ie. no Helga).

-Must not have too many "L" sounds.  That one is my husband.  He doesn't like names with a lot of "L's" so no Lilly or Leslie here.

-Must have between 2 - 3 syllables.   

-Must not have been the name of a "bad" student my husband once had (that's a teacher problem). 

-Must not have any insults that go with it or be a name people would make fun of.
-No feminized versions of boys names (no Josephines over here)
-No names that associated with a popular book/movie character.

-Disney must not come out with a new Princess movie a year after our baby is born, thus causing everyone to think of said princess movie when they hear our child's name.   Too bad we don't have an inside track to Disney so we can know about their future princess movies before choosing baby names.  

Here is our own Princess Elsa. Disney hadn't come out with the movie yet when this picture was taken.

Boy Rules:

-Must not be so unusual no one has ever heard of it.

-Must be a real name...no made up names.

-Must pass the substitute teacher test.  In other words, it must be easily recognizable/pronounceable and spellable.

-Must not be too weird or remind someone of a wrestler.

-Must not have an insult that rhymes with it (ie. no Dirk, because it rhymes with jerk) or be a name people would make fun of.

-Must not have been the name of a "bad" student my husband once had (that's a teacher problem). 

As you can see, there are less rules for boys.  For boys, we like common, everyday names.  

Girls are harder to name. 

I'm currently 29 weeks pregnant with our 4th girl.  You can read more here, if you want to know why we find out!   By the time you get to the 4th girl, you feel like you've used all your favorites already. We already have a name picked out and we've even told a few people.   Any one care to make a guess? (No fair guessing, if I know you and already told you).   Anyone care to make any suggestions? Baby's not born yet, so we can still change our minds and I'm still open to hearing suggestions.

How do you choose baby names?  Do you have any weird rules (like the no "L" rule)?? 

Happy 6th Birthday John (and a naming story)

Six years ago today, we welcomed out 3rd child and (so far) only son into the family!

Happy 6th Birthday John de la Croix Bentrup.

Yes, that is his real name.  He was named after St. John of the Cross, so we actually put the "of the cross" in his name (in French, no less).   We settled on his name very early in pregnancy.  From the very beginning, everyone was 100% convinced he was a boy. So, we never really considered girl names for him.  St. John of the Cross is Ben's favorite saint and shockingly I agreed to the name, I never imagined that I would have a child with the name John.  We wavered between John de la Croix and John de la Cruz, but ultimate decided to be tres chic and go with the French. 

None of my kid's names are anything I would have considered before becoming pregnant with them.  And, we have never "recycled" an unused name choice, our boy name choice for Heidi was Christopher Augustine and for Greta was Isaac.  Obviously John didn't end up with either of those names.  Apparently during pregnancy we forget about every other name we ever considered and start new.   

Linking up with Team Whitaker, for baby naming stories. 

So, Happy Birthday John!  His birth and labor was by far the hardest and most grueling.   Yet, in many ways, he is my easiest child.  He is super smart, loves to do school (especially math and reading), loves to play chess and is very helpful, frequently going "above and beyond" by doing extra chores.  He tries hard to be good and is a doting big brother, very obedient and even though he is an active boy, he is never overly wild or rambunctious. 

Happy Birthday John!  We love you!

He wanted a cake with Oreo's on it.  Well, we used Gluten Free Joe Joe's.  Close enough!
And, the kids made this cake all by themselves....no parental help at all.