What's in a Name?

There are two questions every pregnant woman answers as soon as someone notices her baby bump- "Is it a boy or a girl?" followed by, "Have you decided on a name?" Most everyone who knows us knows that at this point the answer to the latter is, no.

When it comes to choosing a name for a child, there's a lot of pressure.  Their name will define them, determine who their friends could be, or whether or not they're made fun of on the playground, make or break their future resume, or even decide where they will sit during a middle school awards ceremony... which is where I met my best friend... as we struck up a conversation making fun of other people's names.

What's fun about names is that everyone has an opinion on every one of them, and even without a name our baby has acquired a few already.  He's "Baby Kanye," "Rocky," "Drake," and even "Alfred Robin" after Drew wouldn't let me name him Bruce Wayne or my nephew's suggestion: Batman.

Most of his current names stem from inside jokes, yet I'm not sure why they trend towards famous rappers.  Needless to say, they are all on the list of names we will not be choosing.  Also on that list are the suggestions from nearly all of my male friends and co-workers, who when I told the news immediately threw their own names in the ring.  I have yet to witness a female do this.  Maybe it's a macho thing? Anyway, I don't think Drew would be too pleased if I suggested we name our first born after the IT guy at work.  No offense Mike.

Though we'd like the name to be unique, we decided it doesn't have to be as unique as the names so many celebrities have been coming up with recently, which seem to be predominantly inanimate objects.  I'm looking at you, Gweneth Paltrow.  Sure, it might seem like a good idea when you're exhausted from the work of labor and you get handed that birth certificate to just glance across the room and go with "Lampshade Curtain Bautista," but I don't think we'd be doing him any favors in the long run.

Truthfully, Drew and I have a few top choices up our sleeves but we're waiting until we meet our son to make it final.  In the back of my mind I'm still holding out hope that on the day of his arrival he'll stand up, give Drew a hearty handshake and introduce himself properly.  That would certainly make things easy for us.