Friday, May 7, 2010

Where Did You Come Up with That ?!?!?!

Show Us Your Life with Kelly's Korner


I wasn't quite sure what I was going to post today, and then I stumbled across Katie's post , and saw that today's Show Us Your Life theme at Kelly's Korner is about baby names, specifically to "show" baby names you have used, or plan on using in the future.

Confession: I have a slight baby name obsession. This post might get long winded and smug. Consider yourself warned.

First off, I have to tell you...I am a baby name snob. I don't like kreaytive spellings, I don't like "made up," names, and don't you DARE try to talk to me about a name in the top 25. Pshhh. Finding names that meet my exacting criteria is not particularly easy.

Also, I am a single mom, and have been since pregnancy. You would think that this woud have made choosing a name easier on me, because I did not have to take the wishes of the baby's father into consideration, but that was so not the case. I think because I did not have a significant other, that my loved ones felt they were more entitled to force suggest their names to me. Maybe they thought they were helping? If so, I wonder how my grandmother thought telling me that the name Lola reminded her of, "a red-headed, Vegas showgirl, smoking a long cigarette.", would help. 

Really, grandma?

To top it all off, my family has a tradition of using two middle names, so that means I had a whole extra name to come up with.

Not easy. Totally fun, but not easy at all!

The name I ended up with?

Gemma Helena Rose, last name.

I named her the day after she was born, when finally I was in the hospital room by myself. I was still undecided  when the nurse came into the room, but  I decided to just go for it. It being Gemma. I am pretty sure that I am glad I did.

A whole lot of name for a baby. But I think it fits her. Hopefully?

The most common reaction I get to her name is, "Oh! That's different." Others say they love it though, and so do I. (luckily, right?)

Gemma. Her first name. Gem, like a gemstone, so it sounds like Jemma. It means jewel and is Latin in origin. Apparently it is pretty common in the UK, or Australia or something, but not so common in the U.S. I think the first place I may have heard it was actually in the movie "Fools Gold." I liked it, but didn't think much of it because, well...I wasn't planning on having a baby. It grew and grew on me during my pregnancy and right before she was born I had narrowd it down to Gemma or Leila.  I think most of my family prefered Leila (pronounce Layla), but I didn't (and don't) like how popular it was/is becoming...so Gemma it is. To me the name seems classic, but familiar, and feminine all at the same time.

Helena. Her first middle name. Pronounced Heh-lee-nuh. By me at least, because that is the way my grandmother, whom she was named after, pronounced the name. My entire childhood is memories of my grandmother. She was an amazing, strong woman. If Gemma has an ounce of her spirit, I will be proud. Helena means bright one and the origin is Greek.

Rose.  Her second middle name. I am pretty sure you know how to pronounce it, and I am pretty sure you know what it means. Its origin is Latin as well. One of the worst parts of becoming pregnant, was knowing I had to tell my father. It shook me, knowing that I would be dissappointing him. Luckily, my father was almost instantly supportive, true to his good heart and the great man that he is. At some point, mid pregnancy, I asked him about names that he liked. He told me he didn't care at all about names, blah blah blah. A few weeks later, I was on the phone with him, and he asked "how about Rose?" I didn't like the name, but he didn't care. He called her Rose from that point on in my pregnancy. The name never grew on me enough to use as a first name, but I decided to use it as a middle name, and as a tribute to him.

Gah! I am sure that that may be more than you care to know, but I am happy to share it. As I said, I LOVE names!

I am not thinking about any babies for a long time, but I still think about names.

My current short list:

Asher Franklin ?
Isaac Timothy ?
Isla Kate ?
Honor Elizabeth??

So, honestly, what do you think? And how did you come up with your child's name?

Enjoy your weekends y'all!


8 comments:

  1. What a pretty name! I've told ya before I love the name Gemma because it is so original! I like how the two middle names have such meaning behind them!

    O.K. brace yourself....My little girl's first name is Kelcee yup I spelled it the cutesy way the hubs wasn't all that thrilled with the spelling but we loved the name and since I wanted something different we compromised and he said well it will just look like you can't spell ha! I was bed rest and watching the Sweet 16 Marathon and the name of the girl was Kelsey spelled right and I called the hubs and he loved it....every name up to that point he was like nope, I like Lola too and he started singing the song "Her name was Lola she was a show girl" so I couldn't name her that after that hahahahah....

    So her middle name is Alba....no not after Jessica Alba but after the hubs middle name and his dad who passed of cancer before she was born and his late grandfather....I was looking in baby books and realized in the 1030's it was a real popular girls name....

    So her name is Kelcee Alba and of course a last name.....

    sorry I get winded with names to

    Have a happy first mommy's day

    xoxo
    Summer :0)

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  2. Gemma is probably my FAVORITE girls name. (I think I may have mentioned that to you before.) I've loved it for years... and I'm glad I didn't have a girl because my son's father shot down Gemma so quick when we were discussing names... so I still have hope to be able to use it one day!

    I love that her middle name (or, one of them) is after your grandmother! I've always thought that middle names should have special meanings to them, whether that means named after someone special or having a story that makes them significant.

    Levi's first name has no special story to it, other than we'd fought forever over names... I liked less common, more unique names while he liked names like "michael" that are used EVERYWHERE. And we finally found a name we both agreed on, but I think he may have just agreed to it because he was tired of trying to come up with a name. haha.

    His middle name was picked first - Garrett, after a close friend of mine that died early 2008. He was the greatest person I've ever known and part of me hopes that by sharing his name, somehow Levi will have at least some of his qualities. I know, that's weird right? I don't know why I think that... but when I took my Anthropology class last fall I learned that there's a whole culture that shout out names of people who've died during their children's births so that their children will inherit some of their qualities... so maybe I'm not so crazy after all! (Or maybe I am.. but I'm not alone in it. :) )

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  3. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

    I love the name you picked-different but not crazy different. And I am with you on the creative changing of names!
    Have a great weekend & Happy Mother's Day!

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  4. That's a great story! I love the name Gemma and I'm glad you went with it. Your other names for future babes are also really cute, unique, and not trendy. Good choices :)

    I hope you have a great Mother's Day!!

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  5. Such a pretty name, and a lovely story. I am glad you gave the pronunciation of Gemma's name. In my mind, I had been saying the "G" like girl.

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  6. Ok, since you are really into this name thing...please tell me what you think of Gardner Holcombe, Mathurin Witherington and William "Wilkes" Wise?

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  7. Heya☺ I'm a single mom too... but a whole lot older than you- probably older than your mother actually! Anyway, I wanted to say that I love your daughter's name... I wanted to name my daughter Amelia, either Helen, Eleni (which is a Greek version) or Helena. Her dad didn't agree, oddly enough because his mother's name is Helen. Amelia just adores the name Helena and wish, wish, wishes that was her name. We joke about her legally changing her name;D

    Many blessings to you and your sweet girlie, my dear♥

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  8. Its os strange that Gemma is really original and different in America. I know like 20 Gemmas :p but I live in England soo...

    I love American names. You can literally name your kid anything and people dont care. I watch that toddler pageant program (name I cant remember) and there are the most ridiculous names.

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