What's in a name anyway?

With Grace and Emilia, I wasn't worried about naming them. Paul and I made a list throughout the first 20 weeks and the night prior to our big ultrasound chose a male and female name. When the ultrasound tech told us that we were obviously having girls, we named them then and they were no longer a "baby" - they were Grace or Emilia.

We had Emilia's name picked out for quite some time as it is a female take on the name Emil - Paul's great-grandfather who came to Iowa from Sweden - and it is the correct Swedish spelling of Amelia. With Grace we had originally picked "Grace" to be a middle name - Ava Grace - but decided that too many people were naming their kids Ava so we ditched that. Grace and Margaret were both family names and the big ephiphany moment was when we were watching the tv show Lost and our favorite character was named Maggie Grace. I think Maggie sounds like a dog's name so that was out but switch them around and you get Grace Margaret.

Easy enough....right?

Well of all things, I'm kind of starting to stress out about naming this one. It was such a surprise that we honestly haven't been adding to the "name sheet" for more than two years. I know so many people who have had or are having babies soon that I'm worried about dueling names. What if we have a boy and name him the same thing they do - what will we do at a play date? Or what is the rule if I like a certain name, but another family member - like my cousin - is named the same thing? If we use a family member's name as the baby's middle name does this mean I'm going to offend the other side of the family or another family member?

Naming Grace and Emilia was so simple - this time I'm stressing out a bit.

I bought a "name" book at Target today and made a new list of about 20 names. Thankfully I have a bigger list of boys names than just the one that I've loved for years - and I'm paranoid that someone else I know is going to use.

But being that we already have two girls I'm preparing myself for another girl and have tried to find good, old fashioned feminine names. I have one standby that we are saving for about another 5-8 years as Paul and I are looking into adopting from China sometime in the future. I have a decent list, but I'm sure my paranoia is just going to reak havoc on it in time.

At least I have another 13 weeks to add and delete from the list before Paul and I sit down the night before the ultrasound to pick the two perfect names for Baby Bloomquist the 3rd.