Part of the fun in planning for the birth of your baby is choosing a suitable name. Some people prefer to give their baby a namesake (i.e., naming their child after the father, a grandparent, or aunt). There are also a lot of mothers-to-be (and fathers-to-be) who intuitively know what their baby’s name is to be. They may have a dream about the baby and learn their name or wake up one morning just knowing the exact name their baby simply must have! Some people even “hear” their baby tell them what their name is.¹
Your mother or grandmother may have their own stories about how you or your siblings, aunts and uncles or cousins got their names. It might be fun to ask them and find out! Feel free to send us your stories and we will post them on this blog! Lauren’s Story I was 8 ½ months pregnant with our daughter and we were set on the name Jeanne Marie because we both liked it and wanted something different. We had told everyone in our family what we were going to name them and everyone else liked it too.
The morning before I went into labor, I woke up and told my husband, “We can’t name her Jeanne Marie! Her name is Audrey. Audrey Christine!” He said, “What? How do you know that? We agreed on Jeanne Marie?” I said that I knew that, but that I had a very deep sense upon waking up that her name simply must be Audrey Christine. He reluctantly agreed but said that he would have to wait and see “who she was” when she was born to see if it fit her. When she was born, the nurse asked what we were going to name her, and he said, “Audrey!” He told me later that as soon as he saw her, he just knew that was her name. Below is a 2021 list of popular baby girl and boy names to get you started selecting a name for your baby. Girl Names Olivia Emma Amelia Ava Sophia Charlotte Isabella Mia Luna Harper Gianna Evelyn Aria Ella Ellie Mila Camila Avery Rylee Layla Boy Names Noah Oliver Elija Liam Lucas Mason Levi James Mateo Asher Benjamin Aiden Leo Logan Ethan Jackson Leriel Henry Grayson Harlen
¹ Prophet, Elizabeth Clare, Nurturing Your Baby's Soul, ed. Hearn, Nancy and Dr. Joyce Bennett (Corwin Springs, MT: Summit University Press, 1998), 180-184.
