The Name Game

Baby boy Quinn has a name!    But we're not telling :0)   What I can tell you is this naming thing is no joke. When I was pregnant with Gia, Jon and I quickly discovered that we don't agree on names at all. Jon likes Irish names and traditional names. Me? I like Italian names and names that are less traditional but not totally you-neek (aka unique. Get it? It's a play on the people who spell perfectly normal names in wacky ways. Mathieu for example. What happened to Matthew?)   Anyway, we decided, after a few cursory discussions, to not even talk about names until we knew if Gia was a girl or a boy. After the 20 week ultrasound we started talking and it took a few months to come to an agreement.   I remember the night we decided. Jon was online looking at baby name websites and was throwing out his favorites. I was vetoing most of them. One of his suggestions was Gina. Not really my cup of tea, but it made me think of Gia, which I said aloud. Jon immediately said he liked it. So we tossed it around a little while longer. I told my mom one night shortly thereafter (via Facebook messenger) and she loved it too. It took us a few weeks of sitting with it to officially decide on it.     Gia's middle name is Danielle, which Jon picked. It's always been one of his favorite names. Once we decided on Gia, we talked about middle names and knew we liked something with an "L" sound in there. Gia Danielle flowed well and sounded pretty so I {happily} agreed to it.

Gia Danielle -- less than an hour old

I knew that naming number 2 wasn't going to be easy. In fact, if it was a girl, we knew it would be even harder. We love the name Gia so much and it really just fits her so well. How would we ever agree on another girl name that was as pretty as Gia and that we both loved?   After our Gender Reveal we started the long process of making lists and checking out every baby name website Google could find us. Again Jon gravitated toward Irish names, suggesting things like Aiden, James, and even Seamus. And of course I wanted Italian names like Rocco, Marco, or GianPaul.    We finally came up with a list of names we both liked (there were 5 or 6 on there) and we slowly started whittling away at the list. Vincent was on our list, until my stepdad came up with "Vinnie Quinnie".  So, yeah, we crossed that one off pretty quickly!    About a month ago we were in the car, on our way to the shore. Gia was in the back, asleep, and we were talking about names. We came up with a first name and a middle name that we both liked. And then a few days went by and neither of us was 100% sure that it was the name.    I wasn't sure it was the name because I thought of another name that I loved--one that was not on the agreed-upon list...and one that Jon does not really like. I was secretly holding out hope that Jon would change his mind.   Yesterday we revisited the name discussion and Jon explained why he doesn't like my newest choice...and I had to agree with him. Suddenly it lost its appeal and our previously decided upon name was shiny and new again and I loved it.   So there ya have it. The very LONG version of how we came to baby boy's name. Now you just have to wait till October 22nd to find out what we picked {and why}!