Baby Week 27 - We’ve found a name!
October 10, 2008
Although I’ve been sworn to secrecy, Zach and I did finally settle on a name for this new baby. And, someday if he reads this post, he’ll likely groan and moan, but it’s part of his story…
Several months ago I began pestering Zach with names. Since we both spend a large majority of our days in front of computers, I would frequently gtalk him a name. Sometimes he would respond, and sometimes he wouldn’t see it (or he was just completely ignoring me) 
I didn’t get any positive responses until I faceciously suggested Marmaduke. Zach jumped on this name immediately (of course…). To give you some back story, last year we watched a tv show called Carpoolers. It only lasted 1 season, and we didn’t watch it regularly, but it was funny and we enjoyed what we saw. One of the characters was named Marmaduke. He was the adult son of one of the main characters. To say that he marched to the beat of a different drummer would be putting it mildly. His character was entirely entertaining, but no one would ever want to name their child after him.
So, while the name debate continued, we referred to the newest edition as Marmaduke, or ‘Duke for short. If people asked us about names, I would attempt to tell them “Marmaduke” with a straight face, but that never lasted long. Some people come up with cute names for their growing bellies like “Bun” or “Bump” and we called ours ‘Duke…
While I permit the boy’s in-utero name to be Marmaduke, I insisted that this name could not be used one he exits the womb. So, I continued to search through baby name sites. I read through thousands and thousands of names. I don’t really have a favorite baby name site - a simple google search will turn up more than you could imagine. I ended up using BabyZone quite a bit, but that site frustrates me continually. There are waaaay too many adds, the browsing feature doesn’t work all that great, and the interrupt advertisements nearly drove me to an entirely separate angry blog post. What kept me going back was the “baby name basket” - I could add names to the basket, and then I had a running list. Of course, when I went to print the list, I couldn’t find a “printer-friendly” version. so I ended up putting all the names into a word document - all that frustration for naught
I printed the list because that evening we happened to be driving to my in-law’s house, so I knew I would have Zach captive in the car for an hour and a half. He tried in vain to thwart my plans, but I eventually convinced him to look at the lists I brought. He narrowed down the list of 26 down to 4. I spent a few miles trying out the names with various middle names. I told him that 3 of the names were very similar, and I was having a hard time deciding which one I like the best out of the 3. Then after a few more miles, I told him my order preference 1-4. It turns out his order preference was the same. “So that’s it” I said “We’re done”. He replied “But, what if there’s a better name out there?” To which I responded, “Feel free to keep searching, but unless you convince me otherwise, this is going to be the name on the birth certificate.”
The best part is that I’m really happy with the name. I think it’s perfect, and I don’t think that Zach will manage to find any other name that we’re as excited about. I would love to tell you what it is, but in learning from others experiences, Zach prefers to keep the name quiet until it’s already written in stone. The plus to his plan is that no one gives us “the look” or the “oh…” response when we tell them. Even if they have to fake it, they all pretend that they like the name ;-) And, since everyone already knows we are having a boy, and knows the birth date, I guess it’s nice to keep at least one thing a surprise.
If you’re really curious about the name, check back on December 30th - I’ll already have the blog post written and ready to introduce our newest son to the world.
