Naming a baby is HARD work!

I had GREAT intentions on providing photos to go along with the baby name part of this post, but my scanner wasn't working...so this will do!

A name is a hard, hard thing to choose for a baby. Will it fit him/her? What will other people think? and it goes on and on and on...

Well not only did I have all these questions running in my mind, but then I actually included my husband in the discussion and OH MY WORD! We have such VERY different taste in names and this became a VERY HARD discussion.

DISCLAIMER: I'm going to stop right now and say EVERYONE is entitled to their opinion and choice on names. I might LOVE a name and you may hate it, I may not care for your name choices, etc. SO don't judge :)

So girls names, I obviously love traditional names with a Southern flair, such as Anna Claire, so I thought of several that I liked...Audrey...Savannah...Charlotte...Amelia, etc. Every single one I said...Brad said "No." Okay let's try this again...I liked Cameron "Cami"...Ashlyn...Victoria "Tori"...etc. And again the answer "No." Okay, so Brad what do you like? Oh names (circa 1989) like Jennifer, Ashley, etc. Now I love those names, some of my dearest friends have those names, but really? So do like 1 million other people...so...we let the brainstorming begin...I literally named every name that I liked and just waited for a "yes" or a "maybe". And out of the blue one night I was looking at celebrity baby names and saw Kelsey Grammar's daughter's name and Jaclyn Smith's daughter's name and just said it aloud to see what he'd say...

SPENCER?

Now at first this was a bit odd for me because I grew up with a Spencer (boy) and babysat for a family that the dad's name was Spencer, but actually I love it! Taylor, Riley, Reagan, Parker, etc. all acceptable boy/girl names...so yes! I really do like it! Now to decide on a middle name...

I liked several names with Spencer: Ashley, Amelia, Olivia, Kate, but the "A" names and the "O" names make the initials SAD and SOD, I just couldn't do it. So my Mom said, "How about Elise?" YES! I love it! And when I looked up it's origin it is from Elizabeth, which struck a chord in my heart because my Mammaw (Thelma Elizabeth), my sister (Lindsey Beth) and my dearest life long friend (Rebecca Elizabeth) all have that name in some way! So there you have it...

SPENCER ELISE DUFF

Okay, the boy name, this was even harder! I loved SO many boy names, again, Brad did not. But he did like GEORGE. Now listen, I know it's not a bad name, but heavens I just couldn't do it! Everytime I said it, I pictured my poor son being picked on! I just couldn't agree! He so wanted a president's name or a name that makes a strong statement. I understood, but our idea of a "strong statement" name was very different!!! So I suggested Barrett. Brad liked it...whew! But he kept wanting in with George...So I started trying different things with it...Joel Barrett, John Barrett, etc. but he and I found various reasons for not liking them. So I said...what about William Barrett? William was part of my Papaw Van Loh's name, my Mom's dad is named Billy (coming from William) and it is a family name on Brad's side as well. And the BEST part for Brad (a HUGE Texas history fan) is that William B. Travis was commander of the Alamo and his "B" is Barrett. Oh my! LOL! So there you have it...

WILLIAM BARRETT DUFF
- We will call him Barrett :)

Hopefully we'll find out what our baby is in about a month and a half! We can't wait!