Baby names poll!

We definitely did not wait until now to start talking about names. We’ve been talking names for years, and there are several contenders that have stood the test of time and have remained near the top of our list. Then again, there are also a few new names we’ve discovered that have the allure of sounding fresh and original.

If you’ll look at the side of our blog, you’ll see a random collection of names we may or may not like. We’re not going to tell you which names are veterans or newbies to our list, nor will we divulge if we’re leaning toward one particular name at the moment. In other words, the poll to your right is for us to gather information from you, not vice versa.

In some ways, it’s a little bit scary to talk about the new names you like, for fear that in talking about a name too much it will lose its newness and become another boring name. But at some point, we’re going to have to call our kid something, and a name can’t stay new forever.

I’m not sure what makes a name sound good or bad when you hear it. It probably has something to do with your experiences in elementary school with that guy named Chaz or Vince that you really didn’t get along with. For me, however, much of the attraction to a name lies in what the name actually means. By this, I’m not referring to the little cards you can buy in Christian book stores that have some made-up meaning for names like Collin or Ainsley. I remember getting one of those cards when I was younger and it claimed the name Collin meant “Victory.” I thought to myself, “Well that’s a load of crap. You could put anything you want on those cards and, let’s be honest, a card that tells you your name means ‘Defeat’ is not going to sell well.” (In reality, Collin is sort of related to the name Nicholas, which means, “victory of the people”). This is probably why I’m more drawn to biblical names at the moment, because I like the meaning.

As it stands, we don’t know if Baby Ninja is a boy or girl yet, so we’re not sure which section of the baby names book to start with first. Nonetheless, we’d be delighted to hear what everyone thinks about the names in the poll. You can only vote for one name per gender, so make it count!

(If you get this blog in a feed or an email, you’ll have to actually visit the blog to see the poll.)