The inception of "Rina"

I remember when telling our friends and family members the name we had chosen for our first daughter, they asked, "what will her nickname be?" And we had no idea. It wasn't something we were going to worry about, especially before she was born.

Until just last week, Carina has never had a nickname other than "peanut" and "tiny" and those were both relics from her newborn and infant days.

Aurelia has been on a roll with pointing at things and proudly announcing their names recently. "Kitty! Ball! Yake!" (what she calls Jake the pirate) Also "Mommy! Da-y!" (not quite "Daddy" but close) But her favorite? "Big sis! Sissy!" Then...

The first time she said it, we weren't sure if we had heard correctly. So we prompted her to repeat it. We listened and there it was, clear as day, "Rina!" while she was pointing to Carina.

Rina it is. Aurelia says it all the time now and it couldn't be more adorable.

Our Rina.

Baby Name Troubles - Guest Post

Hey All!  I'm Jayne & I blog over at The Naptown Organizer.     I am a wife, mother to my adorable toddler little man, speech language pathologist, blogger, organizer, pet parent, and soon to be mama of two as I'm due with a baby girl in December!  I blog all about my trek into being a crunchy mama through parenting, any and everything granola, and a life more organized.  Check out The Naptown Organizer for all of the above plus some tidbits on decorating, fashion, and giveaways/free stuff!!!     Today, though, let's talk about baby names.   Normally that sentence will elicit looks of terror from my husband and makes me want to run out of the room screaming.  I'm sure there are some couples who are so in sync with their name choices, that choosing a name for their child/children is easy.  For us?  Not so much.   I mentioned I have a toddler, right?  Well, to come up with his name, we tried everything.  We spent hours devouring baby name books, websites, and lists together.  We watched television and looked through books to find names of characters that we liked.  We came up with our own lists separately and then came back together and compared notes.     None of it worked.   What really helped us choose our baby's name?  Construction.  Lol.   Close to the end of my pregnancy, we were in the middle of a bathroom renovation project.  My husband REALLY wanted to tile the shower a certain way, and I disagreed and wanted it done a different way.  In the end, to stop the fuss over the bathroom, my husband just said,   "Okay.  Here's the deal, if you let me tile this shower how I want to, you can name our son whatever you want."   Done.     So that rather romantic story is the way in which we came about the name for our first child.  And this new baby?  No different.  We know what the middle name will be (Elisabeth), but as for the first name, we are up the proverbial creek without a paddle.  I have my few names that I really like and could see naming our baby girl, but my husband doesn't like any of my names.  He has a few names he likes, but they are all so off-the-wall crazy that I can't agree to it.   (For example: he likes the name Trudence, which I'm pretty sure he just made up)   I think that naming your child is a huge responsibility.  A name is such an important thing to give someone, and there are so many considerations that go into it.  Will they be able to find a job later on with that name?  Will their name constantly be mispronounced or confused with something else?  Will they be teased because of the name or possible nicknames that come with it?  Does it sound okay with our last name?  Does it sound okay with their sibling's name?  Will they even like it when they're older???   Really, it could all drive you batty.     I'm pretty positive that this new baby is going to be baby girl even at the hospital....   Unless we find a good construction project to start up before December.   Like this post?  Want to see more?  Check me out on the blog here, or in the following places: Facebook, Twitter, or follow me by email on Bloglovin!

Thanks for sharing, Jayne! I personally love chatting about baby names and the thought behind them. How did you come up with your kids' names?

Jennifer =/= Sophia: breaking down baby name popularity

Were you one of 5 Jennifers, Jessicas, Sarahs, or Nicoles in your class growing up? Did you resent having a nickname like Jen #3 or Jessica B. in order to differentiate yourself from the others? I was one of 3 Melissas in my class, and while it was never a big problem for me, I did vow that I would choose more unique names for children someday.

The Social Security Administration just released 2011's Most Popular baby names list. While looking at the list, I didn't see any surprises. Many of the names were repeats from the last few years. Then, I checked out the total number of births associated with each name, and it piqued my interest.

What was the number of births like for the most popular names the year I was born?

Whoa! For most of the entire top 10, there were ~2-3 times as many babies born with each ranked name in 1984 than there were in 2011.

So Jennifer, (#1 in 1984 with 50,551 babies) =/= Sophia (#1 in 2011 with 21,695 babies)

Sure, they were both the most popular name each year, but looking at today's numbers - there just aren't nearly as many births for each name. Meaning, it's not nearly as likely that your Sophia, Isabella, Jacob, or Mason will have 5 others with the same moniker to contend with, like we Ashleys, Melissas, and Amandas did back in the day.

This is all just something interesting to keep in mind while choosing a baby name. While neither Carina nor Aurelia are in the Top 1000 for 2011 (whoa - guess we're really weird), looking at the numbers this way instead of only paying attention to their rank makes me feel confident that we still would have used both names, even if they had ended up on the Top 10 list.


Where does your baby fall on the 2011 list? Do/have you discounted a name because of its popularity?

Daddy's shoulders & Aurelia's nerdy namesake

A couple weeks ago we headed to the Mystic Aquarium with my sister and her family. Despite growing up less than a couple hours away from Mystic, CT, we had never been! Carina spent much of the time on Daddy's shoulders, or running around yelling, "hi fishy!"

What are you looking at?

Aurelia jellyfish

I actually didn't know there was a such thing as "Aurelia" jellyfish until one of Mike's friends pointed it out after we announced her name. At least they're pretty jellyfish, right? I love that she will have a nerdy namesake, just like her sister.


Do your little ones have anything cool or geeky that they are "named after"?

Toddle Along Tuesday - Naming Baby Deuce

Coming up on 2 years ago we announced that we had chosen names for our first baby. Since Carina emerged from the womb sans peen, we didn't get the chance to use the name Luke Robert. So, should this baby (who we affectionately refer to as "deuce") arrive with dangly parts, that will be his name.

Luke is also Latin, like Carina, and means bringer of light. I have always loved this name. Robert is after M's dad and my grandfather. My grandfather is a deacon in the Catholic Church and baptized Carina (he married us, as well).

Thinking of a name for another girl was much harder. There were a few names that we both liked, but not a single one, in my opinion, really measured up to Carina. I want to love the name we choose for our baby as much as I love the name Carina, so I had a hard time with the thought of settling for one I merely like. Which is why I'm so glad we stumbled upon Aurelia, which is Latin and means golden.

We love it. It seems that there are many different ways to pronounce it, which had me a little reserved about it for some time. But on second thought, we really aren't the type to get annoyed at having to correct people, and I don't think it's that bizarre or out there. FTR - we'll pronounce it "Aw-RAIL-yah". Ellen would be the middle name, after M's sister.

Thinking about our Luke Robert or Aurelia Ellen is making me really excited about this baby :)



<center><a href="http://www.growingupgeeky.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x324/mchupie/Growing_up_Geeky/tatbutton150.png" /></a></center>
My co-host for Toddle Along Tuesday this week is Mindi from Simply Stavish and this week's topic is baby naming! Share how you chose your baby's names, names you'd like to use in the future, or just talk about baby names you like. There are no rules, except that you link up a relevant post rather than your whole blog.



Next week's topic is a simple one: your favorite photo! It can be of anything - you, a pet, baby, whatever you like. Also - we're going to change things up and make it fun; it will be a contest and M will choose the winner! Only rule is the photo has to have been taken by you, your husband, a friend, or family member: no professional photographers, please. Prize will be a free 200x150 ad space for a month :)

Would you like to submit a topic idea and/or volunteer to co-host one week? E-mail me!

What's in a name?

A few people have asked how we decided on the name "Carina" for our little girl.  I thought I had told you, but when I went back to look at our name announcement post, I realized I had neglected to include the reason, silly me.

When it came to names, M and I did not agree at all.  Those I liked; he thought they sounded like stripper names.  The names he preferred; all I could envision was old ladies hunched over their canes.  We couldn't find a single name that we both loved, not even close.

After trolling baby name sites for the gazillionth time I decided to try something different.  M is Italian, and our last name is very Italian sounding, so why not take a quick peek at a list of Italian names?  As I browsed through the list, one stood out: Carina.  Simple, pretty, classic.  It means beloved, dear.

I liked it.  I really liked it.  I called M over and showed it to him.  He really liked it, too.  Since we hadn't agreed on any names up to this point, and we both really liked it, we decided then and there that if we had a girl, we would name her Carina.

After finding out that we were having a girl, we started referring to her as "Carina" instead of "the baby".  We became even more attached to the name.  Then, as we saw her for the first time, our "Carina", it was perfect.  We love her and her beautiful name more and more each day.

Sidenote: it wasn't until after we chose the name Carina that a colleague of M's - another organic chemistry geek :) pointed out that Carina was the name of a constellation in the southern sky.  It contains the second brightest star in the night sky, Canopus.  The Carina nebula (below) is also part of the constellation.  Not bad for a namesake, right?

Carina nebula

Our beautiful bright star.

How did you choose your baby's name?

Geeky Find Friday - Carina's namesake

Ok so this isn't actually Carina's namesake, but one of our friends told us shortly after we announced that we were going to name our daughter Carina, that there exists a nebula with the same name.  And we think it's super cool.

Carina Nebula Astronomy Print by Deep Space Photography on Etsy

Here's the description:
This image, taken in visible light, shows the tip of a 3-light-year-long pillar, bathed in the glow of light from hot, massive stars off the top of the image. Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from these stars are sculpting the pillar and causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of gas and dust can be seen flowing off the top of the structure.


I bet you're wishing that your name was Carina right now so you could have such a badass namesake.  She's a lucky girl, isn't she? ;)