Baby Names

[Heather Hettick]

David wrote:

<<Er, maybe this is one of those UK/US culture things, but why can't
you just ditch the family tree and agree to use names you *both*
like?  Or did Bryce already suggest that?>>

I don't think it's a culture thing other than maybe an individual family
culture thing.  My sister married a Paul III and her son is IV.  They named
their second son after my Dad and have girls names all picked with family
themes too in case they decide to have a third and it's a girl.  My other
sister just married a German man whose middle name is the same as his
father's first name, but they aren't ready to have kids just yet so I don't
know what they'll do.  The three of us have names that are unrelated to any
family history, and based on most of my older relatives names, I'm very
glad.

My husband and I prefer original names, ones with no family or connotations
of people we know well.  The only family inference we have is our kids will
have my maiden name as their middle names.  My husband's name is Kelly and
he gets phone calls and mail addressed to Ms. Kelly Hettick and doesn't like
having to deal with all that so he didn't want to do it to his kid.  Our
daughter is Jade McManus Hettick and we are still negotiating on what our
son (due this December ) will be called.  Kelly doesn't like really common
names and I don't like names that are too unusual for boys.  So far, the
closest to agreement we have come is Alexander, although it's a bit more
common than he'd like.  He's still trying to convince me about Seth or
Sebastian, and I don't care for either.

I really tried for "Harry" with my daughter's help, but that one didn't fly
at all.  My daughter's other name choice is Josephine, after her
great-grandmother who died this spring, because she likes the sound of the
name and really wants her baby brother to be a girl anyway.  Ultrasounds can
be wrong, so it's still a possibility.

Heather Hettick