The name game.

As mentioned in this post and also this post Maisie has been very opinionated about the name of her future sibling. Since mid January she has been calling my belly "Ellie" and when we did finally find out we were having another daughter Maisie hasn't even thought for one second that her sister would have any other name than the one she has picked out for her, but I had other names in mind.

It's a pretty common situation that mom and dad can't agree on a name until last minute, but add a very opinionated and stubborn almost-4-year-old and it's just impossible.  But after fighting a fight that I knew would be impossible to win...I have raised the white flag. I have finally come around to the name Ellie. But for some reason I feel strongly that she should have a more sophisticated first name. Ellie to me sounds too much like a nick name. I guess some could argue that Maisie also sounds like a nickname, but alas, I still feel this little one needs a longer name.

Sooo begins the longest debate ever.

We first decided on Elinor. But after some opinions from family members (I'm looking at you KATIE) that has been nixed (even though we still like it).

My mom called and suggested Ellie Elizabeth, but Maisie has been on a Clifford book kick as of lately so Ellie Elizabeth was much too close to Emily Elizabeth the owner of the big red dog. Plus it's too many Es- Ellie Elizabeth Lee. Austin and I just couldn't commit.

So we started talking about Elizabeth. At first I wasn't too keen for it as a first name because it's soo popular and I hate being one of those people, but that bothered me a bit. I mean it has been in the top 20 names for the last 20+ years. But theres the fact that Elizabeth has a million nick names. Eliza, Elle, Ellie, Liz, Beth, Betty... I'm sure there are more. Which I guess makes me like it a bit better because most likely all the girls that are named Elizabeth will most likely go by one of those nicknames. 

Then when we started coming around to Elizabeth it was almost impossible to think of a middle name because Elizabeth sounds more like a middle name to me. It was hard to get the name to flow right. Everyone under the sun would suggest Elizabeth Mae (Ellie Mae) but I was not going to name my child after a character of the Beverly Hillbillies (even though I was named after Samantha from Bewitched- I never did master the nose twitch though). 

Names that we discussed before Ellie was in the mix almost all included the middle name "Jane" or "Kate" but Austin's brother and his wife just had their daughter who they named Jane, so we feel kind of weird taking a name that was just used by a close family member even though we are only using it as a middle name. But Elizabeth Jane sure does sound cute and Ellie Jane? Even better.

So we still haven't quite figured it out. We still teeter back and forth from Elinor and Elizabeth and still haven't nailed down a middle name for either. So I guess we will see. Wouldn't it be hilarious that after all this debate if we just named her Ellie and didn't bother with a longer first name? I guess it's not passed us at this point. haha