The government just released the top ten boys and top ten girls names of 2011. I watched the clip on NBC's Today Show this morning and the guest said that if they were able to include all the spellings of Aiden, it actually would have been number one for the boys. He also commented that quite a few of the boys names in the top 100 rhymed with Aiden! For the girls, he mentioned that the "older, more sophisticated" names like Sophia (sitting at number one) are making a come back. I was pleasantly surprised that my name, Sarah, wasn't in the top ten!
In fact, because my name is pretty common/popular and my maiden name was Smith, my husband and I were determined to come up with creative names for our children. Yet, the names had to come from our family and have a Biblical connection! For our first daughter we "created" the name Coralyn Ruth -- Lynne being his mother's middle name, Ruth being my middle name and coming from the Bible. For our second daughter, we again "made up" the name Kellah Grace -- Estella being my mother's middle name and Grace serving as our Biblical connection.
If we have a boy, which we hope to some day, we already have our names picked out. They will remain a secret until our son is born though! However, I can promise you we will not be continuing the "legacy" of Lawrence from my husband's side. His dad is Lawrence and so was his grandpa, and maybe even great-grandpa. Sorry, no more Lawrence's. We will also be abandoning Irwin from my side. My dad's middle name is Irwin; so is my grandpa's; and great-grandpa's. I believe it was my great-great grandpa's first name. Not to mention my mom's dad's middle name was Irwin too! Even with all that history, Irwin has been vetoed from our name list!
So, what about you? What do you look for in a name?