She has a name!

Baby names are something I though about long before I ever dreamed of having an actual child. As a kid I loathed having one of the most common names possible for a girl born in the 80's, so I was always imagining what a better option would be. I swore I would never name my daughter a top 10 name, and that is one thing I won't be wavering on. There were a few names I've always loved that were in the top 10 baby girls names of 2013, and that meant unfortunately they're off the list.

But back to the name we did choose. Will and I have been throwing around baby names since before we got married, but never had one that was a must use. Once I got pregnant, the game was on. We are both planners by nature, so we talked about this all the time. We weren't set on having to decide by a certain date, but I think we both preferred it get figured out sooner rather than later. Once we had it narrowed down to 3-4 name combinations for each sex, we decided to wait until we knew the gender of our baby before thinking any more about it.

While we were waiting for the big news, what had been my number one girls name started popping up everywhere. Not in a good "This is a sign" kind of way. In a bad "Is this more common that I thought?" kind of way. So there went that. Will decided he hated what would have been my next choice, so our list of girl names was down to two.

There was no real ah-ha moment where one name really became all of the sudden better than the other. We just started using one, the one that had been on our list longer, and it stuck. Though it is creeping up the list in popularity, I don't think it will ever be a "Brittany" for us 80's girls or an "Ava" or "Emma" for the generation of girls being born now. I guess the 2010's? I never did understand what you call people born in decades ending in 00-09 or 10-19.

 Anyway, the name we chose is simple, but beautiful. In my opinion at least. We like the meaning, and I can hear myself saying it over and over for the rest of my life. The first name because we love it. The middle name after my first sister.

Norah Paige

A couple of side notes.

We didn't see a reason to keep our name a secret, but I also won't be sending out a press release to everyone we know. I share here because I share most everything here. And if anyone asks in "real life" we are happy to tell them, but I won't be posting a Facebook announcement or anything.

I still like our second choice girls name, and plan to use it if we ever have another daughter. The name I kept seeing everywhere and got skeeved out about was Emilia Jane, and we were going to call her Emma for short. The name I loved but Will didn't care for was Tess or Tessa. Another front runner was Grace, but our last name also begins with "Gr", so that was just too campy.

If we were having a boy, we were settled between two first names, and really leaning toward one of those two. We will definitely be saving those for if we ever do have a son, as I don't see my mind changing. There are very few boys names I like, and that I feel like go with our last name.

Though we are set on this name, I am hoping no one buys us too many things that are personalized. My Mom was 100% sold on the name Hailey for my sister Brooke. By that statement, you can tell once she was born, Hailey just didn't work out. We love our choice, and I doubt anything will change, but you never know with these things.

We can't wait to meet you Norah Paige! I keep calling her Nori and Norah Belle in my head. I wonder which nicknames will stick?!