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Monday, May 14, 2012
Help me name my baby: Updated with survey results!
Posted By Ailen Arreaza on Mon, May 14, 2012 at 2:48 PM
Despite my not-so-hypothetical love for Gael and Tony's workplace lobbying for Felipe, you all have chosen Gabriel.
As my parent's first child, I have no personal experience with the SCS - you know, the second-child syndrome. But I have heard from my brother and friends who are second children that at times throughout their lives they've felt... not less loved, no, but less, let's call it, indulged than their firstborn counterparts. Before I was a mother, I scoffed at this notion. Second children had it easy! Firstborns pave the way for them to stay out past curfew and start dating earlier and go on spring break with their friends. But now that I am 37 weeks pregnant with my second child and still don't even have a name for him - yes, I guess I sort of understand where my little brother was coming from.
By the time I was 24 weeks pregnant with Luki, we had renovated an entire room in our home and turned it into his nursery. We'd registered for every baby gadget imaginable. We read books and played music to my belly every night. Now, with t-minus three weeks to birth, this baby's (hand-me-down) crib is filled with (hand-me-down) laundry that needs to get done; we have yet to install a (hand-me-down) rear-facing car seat; and the only reason we had a shower is because my friends love me too damn much and ambushed me with a surprise one even though I said I had no interest in acquiring a single additional item of baby paraphernalia. Luckily, we mostly got gift cards which we can use to buy diapers and wipes, the only things I couldn't figure out how to reuse.
I think the most pressing issue here is that this baby still doesn't have a name. So, I'm opening the floor to you, dear CL readers. What should we name this baby?
A few things to consider:
1. The baby's last name will be Arreaza. You have to know how to roll your "r"s to say that correctly, so we don't want to name him something that's overly contrasting with our very Spanish last name. Something like Brian, for example. We also don't want to name him something that non-Spanish speakers won't be able to pronounce, like Guillermo. We like short, two syllable names that work in both languages.
2. The baby's middle name will be Ulises. It was my father's.
3. This is just for fun, we're not actually promising to name the baby what you suggest. But you know, it's a good way to see what our extended group of peers think. For example - and this is totally a hypothetical situation - let's say that I really wanted to name the baby Gael, but that my husband refused because he thinks I am secretly in love with a certain Mexican movie star who bears that same name, and let's say that most of you voted for Gael because you really believe it's a great name, well then maybe I could use that data to convince him. Again, totally hypothetical situation here.
So what should we name this kid? And if you have any other suggestions - you know, about SCS, hand-me-downs, that kind of stuff - please leave them in the comments.
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