Why I Love Names

I have been obsessed with names for as long as I can remember. I used to peek through baby name books at age 8 when my Nana would take me into the bookstores downtown. Whenever I met someone with an interesting name, or a name I thought was beautiful, I stored it away to remember it for next time I needed to name a stuffed animal, or a Barbie doll, or even myself the next time my friends and I would pretend-play. I soaked names up like a sponge. Once I hit puberty I started getting some VERY odd looks any time I was caught browsing baby name books. In high school my mother got quite suspicious upon catching me looking at baby name sites on the internet. I didn't want her to freak out, so I even hid a baby name book I'd bought at a friends house. Of course, as luck would have it I became pregnant at the end of my senior year of high school, so my mom only felt validated in her suspicions, but in all those years simply absorbing all those names in my mind, being a young mother had never been my intention. Since my oldest was born, I'm afraid I scared my parents, my friends, any guys I dated, and my now-husband half to death rattling off baby names I loved, since they all felt that being in my early 20's and having one child was quite enough. And now that I have 2 sons, the mere mention of any baby names I like is enough to send my mother into panic (she only had 2 children herself, and seems to think there's no need for me or anyone else to have more than 2 children either) and I'm sure my husband begins to wonder if we should be using condoms in addition to my IUD (poor guy). But there are NO plans for another little one right now (and there never was, but after my 2 wonderful sons, I could never have any regrets, though I do have my birth control situation MUCH more under control now), so my obsession remains entirely innocent.

I never realized, until I had access to the internet, that there were other people out there who were as fascinated by names as I was. My friends always liked names. Growing up we all had our own ideas of what we'd rather have been named, or what we'd name our future hypothetical children with the guy we held hands with at the ice rink last Friday and would OBVIOUSLY marry someday. But none of my friends seemed to have the passion for names that I did. They just weren't as excited as I was when they came upon a new name. And they didn't seek out new names as aggressively as I did.  They had no more than a few moments interest in baby name books, and spending any amount of time on a baby name website seemed ridiculous to them. I chalked it up to another of my weird interests. I was also the only one of my friends who was fascinated by natural disasters, or the ruins of Pompeii, or Ancient Egypt. My friends just didn't care about those things, because they had more pressing sports/TV shows/boys to consider. I figured baby names was just another one of those things. However, during my second pregnancy, I met other women on the What to Expect message boards at who shared my passion for names, and it wasn't just because they had a baby to name in the next 9 months. I found a site called Nameberry dedicated entirely to names: lists of names, name meanings and origins, blogs about names, recent celebrity baby names. I was in my element! And there were girls on Yahoo! Answers who hours every day asking for name suggestions, name opinions, matching names, etc. And the naming world exploded before my very eyes! There were other people out there who loved names as much as I did! And there were still SO many names I hadn't yet discovered!

So why am I obsessed with names? I've never been entirely sure. I think I love that all names are so very different. I love how they all come from different places or languages. I love all the interesting meanings. And I love how some names can fit a person not at all, but fit someone else just right. There have been several names I've LOATHED from the start, but all it took was one person who bore that name perfectly, and I was in love with that name from then on. I just find it all so fascinating. And names are just so powerful. They set a tone for who a person is from the first moment you hear the name.

So there is my big explanation and introduction. I hope to reach many readers who share my passion for names. Check back tomorrow for my next posting, and thanks for reading!