What's in a name?

Giving another human being a name is not an easy task. Hopefully, your child will have the name you pick for the rest of their life. In some countries they take baby naming so seriously that they have approved lists of names to pick from, and prospective names can be rejected. At least that's what I've read! Unfortunately for the children of Hollywood stars, that is not the case in America. We have gotten asked a lot about Ellison's name, so I figured I would write about it!

I have been OBSESSED with names for as long as I can remember. I always read the stories about popular names and wait anxiously to see what people I know (and celebrities) will name their babies. Maybe this stems from having an "unusual" name myself. I know there are plenty of kids named Kennedi/Kennedy (and Kennedie, Kenadee, and other butcherings of the name) running around now, but growing up I never had another kid with my name, in any variation, in my class or even in my school. I loved having a unique name and still get comments on it (and the "different" spelling) to this day, even though it has gotten a lot more popular. I have always known I wanted to give my children "unique" names, too. Not "Hollywood" names that are better suited to fruits, cities, or animals. Those "names" are pretty silly, in my opinion. I don't know why anyone would do that to their child. I also didn't want my kid to have a name on any "most popular" list and have to go by their first name and last initial their whole life. Obviously lots of people go with popular names, and if they weren't nice names they wouldn't be popular in the first place. But that just isn't for me. The problem with my taste for a more unique name was getting Jay, who is into more traditional names, to agree with me on something!

Due to our differing ideas about names, we picked out Ellison's name before I was even pregnant. It's really the only girl name we both liked, which may be a problem if she ever has a sister! Here are the answers to the questions we get asked most often about it:

1. How do you say her middle name?

It's pronounced like "Katie". And we weren't just trying to be different by spelling a common name in a weird way, Katea is my middle name too. I'm named after my grandmothers, Kathleen and Teallie (sidenote, Kennedi is after my grandfathers, Kenneth and Edmund).

Jay got me this beautiful necklace with Ellison's name and birthstone and gave it to me in the hospital right after she was born!

 

2. Where did the name Ellison come from?

We both really liked Addison, but it became way too popular for me. Because of my job, I see the "trendy" baby names over and over again, and I would rather not have a baby with the same name as multiple patients I've taken care of! I also really liked the name Ella, but again, really popular. So I wanted to find a name we could shorten to Ella, if we wanted to. None of the ones I was finding really worked for me (yes, I admit I was working on this...looking up stuff like "names that shorten to Ella" before I was pregnant), so I thought I would kind of make up my own. Ella + Addison = Ellison. And Jay loved it too! Unlike every other name I ever suggested...

I realize there are other Ellisons out there. Like I said, I'm obsessed with names, so I did my research and saw there were other people with the name. But I checked the Top 1000 names on the Social Security website, and Ellison has never been on it. I looked it up on a million baby name sites and Google'd it to make sure it wasn't associated with anyone horrible. I read every message board where other people considering the name debated with strangers over whether it was for a boy or girl (boy on most baby name sites, but doesn't sound like a boy name to me!) and whether it sounds too much like Allison (I never even thought about that until long after we picked it out). Point is, I don't personally know any Ellisons besides ours. Neither do most people I know. Perfect!

3. Are you going to call her "Ellie"?

This is a popular question! Short answer...probably not. Long answer...nicknames are weird to me. Maybe because my parents ALWAYS called me by my full name and still do. I don't understand why people name their kid one thing and call them something else right off the bat. I'll make up an example...we named her Delilah but we are going to call her Lila. If you wanted to call your kid Lila, why didn't you just name her that in the first place? Now I know I said I wanted to have a name that could shorten to Ella. But we did not plan to start calling her that right away, and I don't know yet if it really fits her. I think nicknames should be something that kind of develop over time. I find that we call her "Ell" most often. Actually we probably call her a million things more often than that (sweet pea, princess, etc!), but as a shortened version of her name, I think it's Ell we use most. So we will probably go with that and not Ellie or Ella if she is going to have a nickname. But we'll see as time goes by!

I'm really happy with our choice of Ellison Katea and think it's the perfect name for her!

And to end this post, here's a couple pictures from the last week or so...

9 Weeks Old, 4/20/12

 Absolutely obsessed with her play gym...she kicks the piano SO HARD!

 Hair all slick with baby oil for cradle cap...I think it looks hilarious!

LOVES looking at herself in the mirror

 10 Weeks Old, 4/27/12

 Passed out from playing so hard

Daddy's girl