What's in a name?!

Its almost time for baby girl to make an appearance (well, I've been ready for a while now, but seriously, she should be coming any day!!). And I think we might finally have her name...

what...you thought I'd share it here?! Not going to happen...

We learned the hard way with our first. Abbi was named before there ever was an Abbi. Before there was a plan to HAVE an Abbi! We chose a girl name and a boy name before we even married. It just happened... y'know... we were talking one day and said, "If we have a boy, his name would be (no, I can't share it! Even though we think we're done...you never know!). And if we have a girl, it will be Abbi." So, from the time we found out we were having a girl, my belly was known as Abbi. I felt like it took the mystique away from her... and it was weird when people would address my belly by name. So, with Lexi, we neither decided on, nor shared, her name ahead of time. I think we finalized her name early in the third trimester, but never let on that we had done so.

This time around, I had the name picked out from the get-go... and Russ was set too. Set AGAINST my name! I love the name Avery...but unless Russ comes to his senses, baby girl will not be called Avery. And, no... we never meant for all A's... but when you start in the front of the alphabet in a baby name book, sometimes its hard to get past the first letter! Russ countered with Aubrey, thinking it would appease me. It did not. So, for the past 3 months, we've basically been at a standstill... Abbi threw out her suggestion - Ella. Beautiful name... but not for my kid. I have to give credit to Abbi, though. When we first told her about her new sibling-to-be, her name choices were Brett Favre and Aurora Sleeping Beauty. Well, Brett's not a good name for a little girl (although I might have been easily persuaded!) and Aurora Sleeping Beauty is kind of wordy... Lexi names all her baby dolls Annie (or at least we think that's what she's saying around that ever-present pacifier). So, that's a "no" as well...

Anyway, we think we have the name...now we just need the baby!!!

So, I was reading a blog the other day where the dad listed all his kids' names and their meanings and I thought maybe it would be interesting to see what my girls' names mean...and how true those meanings are.

Abigail Kae - hmmmm... a hebrew name meaning Exalted Father (??). Kae means Happy!! (And for the record, Kae is a combo of my sisters' middle names - Rae & Kristel).

Alexis Renee - Protector reborn. Well, I like the protector part... don't know about the reborn....

and finally, baby sister's name means - work. Uh, maybe I picked the wrong website to find these meanings. What kind of name means WORK?! Does this mean she's gonna be a lot of work for ME?! Because, to be honest, her sisters are a lot of work...is she going to be MORE WORK?! Argh!!!

(that website, by the way, is www.babynamer.com... maybe not so good on the meanings, but I got a kick out of their "drawbacks" list for each name - potential nicknames people may call your child. If I ever feel the immature need to tease someone about his or her name, I now know where to look!!)

Before I go... I posted some photos of the girls on my photography blog... if you like what you see, let me know!! Comments are always appreciated!

http://photografour.blogspot.com/2009/04/photographers-kids.html