When I was pregnant with Andrew my husband and I (and the girls too) went back & forth so many times that I wasn’t sure if we would ever pick a name for him. We just couldn’t decide what to name the baby or I should say that we couldn’t agree on a name.
Before we knew what we were having we had a huge list of boy names and a smaller list of girl names and had to go through a process of elimination which… was very difficult! I seriously thought that once we had the baby that we would never be able to leave the hospital because we just couldn’t agree on a name or worse yet the nurse would have to name the baby. Scary thought, right?
Once we knew what we were having our list was narrowed down a bit. A boy. We were having a boy.
We made it through my entire pregnancy without a name or almost all the way through it. Then one day while at the circus, a mere 2 weeks before he was born, a decision was made! Yes, you did read that right…. at the circus. No, we weren’t going to name the baby after one of the clowns or anything like that.
My husband wanted to name him after himself…. a jr. and I wanted to name him Grayson and we just couldn’t find a happy middle ground. But it was my husbands grandmother who helped us out that day. She suggested that we name him Andrew… after her father. It was such an easy decision at that point! We finally had a name…. Andrew Noel. Andrew from my husbands side and Noel from mine.
Not Andy. Not Drew. Just Andrew. At least for now it’s just Andrew… maybe in time it will get shortened.
Did you have trouble picking a name for your baby? How did you & your spouse come to an agreement for a baby name?
This is a featured post written by me on behalf of Bounty. The opinions and story of naming my son are all mine.
Names are so tough! I like Andrew Noel because I love names that have meaning. My daughter Lilly was hard to find a name for until we looked at our family tree and I saw that my grandmother’s middle name was Lillian. We chose Jean for her middle name after my husbands grandmother. It took almost the whole 9 months though to decide!
Same here! I do love the name that we have now and can’t imagine it being anything else.
Love the name!! We have an Andrew ourselves. Originally, I wanted to call him Drew, but he quickly changed that when he corrected me at 3 yrs old
My youngest, a girl, was named before she was born.
My middle? A boy didn’t have a name til we were leaving the hospital. Now? I couldn’t imagine naming him anything else
No name till you left the hospital?!?! Did you hold off on the baby’s paperwork till right before you left?
Oh my gosh. I could do an entire post on naming my kids. First of all, I love the name Andrew. LOVE IT! Except, Jdaddy didn’t love it.
Long story short, I had to have two names picked out for each kid, just in case they didn’t look like the name we really wanted. Buddy’s real name is Jack…and he was either going to be Jack or Nicholas. Buster’s real name is Nicholas, and we had several names in line if Nicholas wasn’t the right one, but thankfully it was. He was Nicholas for his first year, and now he’s basically Nick or Nicky.
We just had the one name…. having anything more prepared would have been more work. More discussion and of course more disagreement!
I’m sure I’ll be writing a similar post soon…we’re having a hard time with this baby name. Actually, Andrew is one I LOVE, but there’s already too many cousins named that (my hubby has a huge family, which means pretty much every name is taken!). Love names with meaning as well.
I love your preggo at the circus pic and Andrew’s newborn one. Both sooo precious!
Thanks! I was thinking back to that day at the circus and it really was a mere week or two before I went into labor!
Whew – I was relieved to find out that Andrew isn’t secretly named Squeaky or Puddles! I love that he has a family name, and what a sweet story to go with it. My boys have family names, too, which eliminated a lot of debate. Not all the debate – we tossed around a lot of non-family names, too – but in the end it was pretty easy to settle once we narrowed down to family names.
The girls (aside from Lauren) have family names for both first and middle names. I felt that it was important that my kids have family names and am happy with the choices we made.
I don’t remember struggling over that. I’m pretty sure I made the decision for the most part and he was good with whatever. lol
That is exactly how it worked out with my oldest daughter!
Love the name! My husband and I had a heck of a time trying to come up with a name. We knew we were having a boy, but that didn’t seem to help any. When I went into labor, I was really hoping he would come out “looking like a…” and he did. About an hour or so after, we came up with a middle name.
My only concern when I went into labor was that if I ended up having a girl! Then the name challenge would have started all over again!
Naming a baby is SO hard! With our fourth, we had actually made a deal that if it was a boy, my husband would get the final say on his name; if it was a girl, I did. Of course, when we found out it was a boy, I regretted it! And I really wasn’t sure if I liked the name he picked (AT ALL), but I’ve since gotten used to it and have even fallen in love with it.
I would be so scared to make a deal like that!! I wanted us to agree on a name or at least come to some sort of compromise.
We were pretty sure, but that is too hilarious about the clowns!
I love the name Andrew. It is such a nice name.
Great pic, btw. You all look so happy!
It’s a simple name but so common. I tried to pick names for the kids that are normal but ones that you don’t hear a lot. But that’s ok, because I don’t see him as anything other than an Andrew now.
Jackie,
Those are darling pictures! We named The Boy after my dad & my hubbies dad. We named The Girl after a favorite movie character. Yeah, I know, wacko.
Thank you! A favorite movie character… now that’s a good idea!
I know when the time comes, it’ll be a lot harder than what it seems now. Ironically, him and I already have names picked out, but knowing me, when the time comes, it’ll be a different name altogether
I was obsessed with baby name books growing up and fascinated with all the different kind of names out there.
Oh, I was too! And websites that had baby names, their meanings, and all that. Loved it.
My husband and I have an agreement he names the boys and I name the girls. He named our first son after his late father so it was very easy to come up with the first one. We shall see if it will be as easy next time.
So what happens if one of you really hates the name that the other picked out?
We fought like crazy over naming #1. I was sure it was a girl and never thought of anything else. And then HE was born!
Now with #4 I named her the minute I found out I was pregnant, and told NO ONE. When she came and I told my husband what I had decided, he hated it. So I said I would compromise and switch the first with the middle. And that was that.
Andrew was the hardest because my husband really wanted him to be a junior and I absolutely refused. I’m happy with the name he has now though.
I love family names, it really is a great way to honor someone special. We named our daughter after our mothers, using their two names as her first and middle names.
All but one of my kids has a first & middle name that are family names. It’s special to me, but then sometimes I wish that I just went my own way and picked something really unique for the kids.
My husband and I do not agree on names! I’m just about halfway through this pregnancy now and we haven’t even discussed names yet. I’m scared to!
Oh… you have plenty of time!
I was a single mom, so there was no arguing with anyone.
Also? I had my daughter’s name picked years before she was born. I just always knew.
And since she’s an only, there were no more decisions.
With the girls I was able to pretty much get names that I really wanted but with my son it wasn’t happening!
We really struggled with both of our kids names. We each liked names the other hated. It took a lot of work to get there!
Andrew is a beautiful name.