Choosing a Name for Your Child

Including a piece of their family

“Could I help choose a name for her?” This question took us a little of guard during our first meeting with Breanna, an expectant mom. Lucky for me, my husband is pretty quick and had the perfect response. “We would be the ones saying her name all day, every day. We need to like her name. However, we would love for your opinions and for you to be involved in her naming process, if you were to place with us. It would mean a lot to have a name chosen by her parents and birth mom.”

We had received our first email from her a few weeks before meeting her and had continued emailing and texting before that first meeting. A week after our first meeting, which we had over dinner at our home with her parents, she told us she was going to place her baby girl with us. We were beyond excited!

A few days later, we started texting names back and forth. It was obvious that we had very different styles in names. My husband and I were drawn towards classic English names, while Breanna was drawn towards trendy names. My husband is the youngest of five siblings with almost 20 nieces and nephews. I am the oldest and this would be the first grandchild on my side. However, we both have very large, close extended families. We were also the last of our friends to start our family; most of them had two or three kids already. Having kids after everyone else meant a lot of names had already been taken. We would veto names, as politely as possible, each thinking each other’s names were a little crazy. Every so often there would be a name that stayed on the list.

Two months later, Breanna was on her way to the hospital with contractions. We had been texting back and forth since she left our house that morning.

Breanna: “What are we going to name baby girl?”

Me: I scrolled through all of our name suggestions, found three names that were never used or vetoed. “Which one is your favorite? Amelia, Claire, Cameron.”

Breanna: Her response was immediate, “Amelia. What is your favorite?”

I looked at my husband and asked what he thought. We texted her back, “Amelia Jo it is! We can’t wait to meet her”