What's in a Name?

What's in a name?  As it turns out, a lot...

Like I mentioned in my previous post, there are days when I forget that I'm pregnant (side note - not anymore.  I'm uncomfortable and sporting quite the round belly, so I'm constantly aware that I'm pregnant now).  Caroline is keeping me so busy and Luc's job is keeping him pretty occupied as well, so most days little baby Smith isn't high on the priority list.  Poor thing.  I hope she doesn't have 2nd child syndrome already! 

We've been kicking around some names ever since we found out Baby Smith is girl, but nothing was sticking.  Charlotte, Abigail, Claire, Ellie, Penelope, Eleanor, etc.  We liked Penelope from the start, but then silly Kourtney Kardashian had to go and name her baby Penelope, so we crossed that one off the list.  We like traditional names, but Eleanor seemed too old fashioned for a baby.  We decided on Charlotte for a week or so, but gave up on that name as well.  We were waiting for a name to jump out and say "That's it! That's the name!" much like it did with Caroline. 

I guess our list of criteria was just too much:
- no names that can be shortened to a nickname.  Luc and I are both nickname babies and not fans.  Especially me.  Erin Kathleen, but I go by Katie?  That's a lot of stress for a 5 year old to learn to recite before Kindergarten.  I still get funny looks when I tell people my name is Erin.  I tell them to call my mom and talk to her about it.
- no boy/girl names.  It has to clearly be a girl name.  We don't want any Dawson's Creek mishaps like when Joey ended up in the boys' dorm.
- traditional, but not plain.  Our last name is Smith...need something better than Mary.
- it can't be on the "do not name list" I compiled while teaching.  I only had a few from my days at my first school, and my second school had zero names that I would use...thanks to names like Tra'Angle and Diamond.

Something had to give, otherwise we'd take home a baby with no name!  Ellie kept creeping back into our minds and so we decided to go with it.  It was a front runner from the start, but we didn't like Eleanor as the long version.  We needed something better.  Then, one day, I was talking to someone (can't remember who) and they mentioned using Elizabeth.  It hit me right then and there - ELIZABETH!  That's it!  DUH!  Why didn't I think of that before?  It's my sister's middle name and beautiful!  If you're the person who mentioned Elizabeth, please let me know so I can thank you with a nice batch of brownies.

So there you have it, folks.  Elizabeth Kate Smith.  We'll call her Ellie from Day 1 and stick with it until she becomes a doctor/lawyer/baker and wants to go by Elizabeth.  Or until she gets called smelly Ellie and needs a quick way to stop it...either way, they are both great names.

She's only got about 8 more weeks until her debut, so I'm glad we got that figured out!  Now, if we can only get the nursery painted...