What's in a Name?

So several people have asked me about our baby name. I have to say that it's not a very interesting story, but I will share our naming process anyway.

I started at the Social Security's website because they had recently posted the most popular names of 2011. I skipped the Top 100 and went from there. I saw plenty of names that I liked, but nothing that I loved.  It seems like there are two huge trends right now... people either want a 'unique' name or a 'classic' name. I guess "Lyla" is a classic name.. and is #127! I really love the comeback of these old-fashioned names. I guess it's not just me that thinks Willa and Olive are both adorable!

After searching SSA and the rest of the web, we turned to our ever trustworthy phones.  We got a couple of baby names apps and kept searching. I saw Kallan and fell in LOVE. I simply felt that this was the one. At this time though, I was fairly confident that we were going to have a boy. I saw that "Callan" is in the top 1000 for boys and thought that we would maybe go with the "C" instead. When we found out we were having a girl, we weren't sure if we felt that it was a very girly name anymore after having considered it for a baby boy. But the more we talked about it, the more we felt like we just KNEW that was our baby's name. I should mention that Erik is incredibly picky.... I like a lot of names, and he likes very, very few, so I always got discouraged from being turned down so much. As soon as he gave Kallan a "maybe, " I pretty much considered that the baby's name. Then at one point, he turned to me and said, "She's Kallan, isn't she?" So that's the story!

For a middle name, we wanted something simple and pretty and feminine. When we went to the hospital at 32 weeks, we still hadn't decided! Marie had been our tentative favorite for awhile and we thought it sounded and looked the best so that's really the story there.

Kallan can either mean "powerful in battle" or "flowing water." It's technically a girl's name, but could be used for a boy, which makes it unisex in my mind, and for whatever reason, I just LOVE unisex names!

The end!

P.S. Like my stretch marks? I used lotion every day during this pregnancy and got more than I did the first time... when I didn't EVER use lotion. Hm.... They say it's genetics, guess it's probably true!