In Her Words

The Name Game

Help me name my baby!

-Julie Ryan Evans

If you've ever been pregnant (or have even just been in the presence of a pregnant woman for more than two seconds), you know that the first question everyone asks you is: Do you know if it's a boy or a girl; and the second, regardless of your answer to the first is: Do you have a name (s) picked out?

With my son we knew pretty early on he would be a Nolan, and we never waivered. We also kept it a secret, which was kind of fun.

I always thought naming a girl would be much easier and even more fun. I remember growing up making lists with my friends of the names we would give our daughters. Unfortunately, Tiffany doesn't hold the same allure as it did when I was 10, and besides I already used that on our cocker spaniel once. Now that I'm going to have a real, live little girl, I'm stumped and am having nightmares that her permanent name will be Baby Girl Evans because we'll never reach agreement.

I would love to name her Eleanor; my husband e-mails me pictures of Eleanor Roosevelt. Beatrice is high up on my list; my husband says: NO GOLDEN GIRL NAMES. Elly? He rhymes it with smelly and fears she'll be tortured. The ones he likes I find too trendy or too ... just not right.

Then there's the problem of having your last name begin with a vowel - you can come up with some pretty interesting monograms if you're not careful. Think about what monogram you would get if your name was Penelope Grace Ingels! Or in the case of our last name, what if we chose Beatrice Danielle Evans. Could I really let my daughter walk around with BED on her chest?

Then there's the problem of what your e-mail address may be one day (a game my husband loves to play). Say she works for a company that uses the first letter of your first name and then your last name @greatcompany.com. Just imagine the mail from a Paula Enis (I'll give you a minute to calculate that one). I can't think of much one could do with Evans, but you never know ... These are things that keep me up at night!

So I'm appealing to you fellow Bettys. Give me your best suggestions on what to name this girl. I want to hear them all. Here are some tips. I like classic, not-too-trendy names. They shouldn't sound made up or like we live in Hollywood. But they also shouldn't be on any top 10 charts (I was once known for an entire year as Julie #3 because there were so many Julies in my class). It should be pretty and light, yet strong. And to satisfy my husband, it shouldn't be able to rhyme with anything too bad, make a terrible e-mail address or provide an embarrassing monogram.

I think that's it. Not too hard is it? So give me your best shot. If you come up with one we haven't considered yet and use, you'll have my ultimate gratitude. And ... I might even send you a Betty t-shirt.

Speaking of which, I do have a grandmother named Betty. Hmmm....