Naming a child is significant. Doing it twice now, I know what goes into it.
While I am somewhat extreme in my process (some of you know about the multiple steps that Gina begrudgingly partakes with me to decide), I feel it's important. I had hoped to go to the hospital with two boy and two girl names in February. After some agonizing conversations, we compromised on two boy names and five girl names.
Pre-parenthood, I use to believe that there was no way that a newborn looked like a certain name when they were less then 24 hours old, but I now know they do. There are many theories why, but the one I tend to believe is that (right or wrong) people have preconceptions of what someone with a certain name looks like (hair color, the shape of nose/lips, etc.).
Regardless, it's the main reason I personally don't agree with naming a child before birth (granted I do realize that there's no right or wrong way of doing it).
Thankfully, Macie definitely looked like a Macie (side note: Gina and I had a conversation last week and we decided that only two of the five girl names we brought to the hospital would have fit her and we chose one of them).
But...we are now paying the price for it.
Since her birth, the spelling of her name by others has been as follows:
Macie ~40%
Macy ~30% (this is generally the default if they are not sure on the spelling and the bigger long term issue as it is the most popular version of the name)
Maci ~20% (mostly because my grandma had the wrong spelling and perpetuated it to others)
Macey ~10%
I still feel as if we made the right choice with her name (and with the spelling of it). But, Gina and I have sentenced MJ to a life of continuously spelling her name for others.
Sorry Macie.
While I am somewhat extreme in my process (some of you know about the multiple steps that Gina begrudgingly partakes with me to decide), I feel it's important. I had hoped to go to the hospital with two boy and two girl names in February. After some agonizing conversations, we compromised on two boy names and five girl names.
Pre-parenthood, I use to believe that there was no way that a newborn looked like a certain name when they were less then 24 hours old, but I now know they do. There are many theories why, but the one I tend to believe is that (right or wrong) people have preconceptions of what someone with a certain name looks like (hair color, the shape of nose/lips, etc.).
Regardless, it's the main reason I personally don't agree with naming a child before birth (granted I do realize that there's no right or wrong way of doing it).
Thankfully, Macie definitely looked like a Macie (side note: Gina and I had a conversation last week and we decided that only two of the five girl names we brought to the hospital would have fit her and we chose one of them).
But...we are now paying the price for it.
Since her birth, the spelling of her name by others has been as follows:
Macie ~40%
Macy ~30% (this is generally the default if they are not sure on the spelling and the bigger long term issue as it is the most popular version of the name)
Maci ~20% (mostly because my grandma had the wrong spelling and perpetuated it to others)
Macey ~10%
I still feel as if we made the right choice with her name (and with the spelling of it). But, Gina and I have sentenced MJ to a life of continuously spelling her name for others.
Sorry Macie.
I thought there was a silent P in there somewhere? No? Hmmm ... my bad.
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