What's in a name?

James and I did not take the responsibility of naming our children lightly. Neither had names when they were born ... we took our time as we wanted to pick the right name. I should say that James suggested Adam right away ~ I just took my sweet ass time coming around to it. But, in my opinion, he is an 'Adam' through and through. And we've never received anything but compliments on that name selection.

This cannot be said for our daughter's name. We took several hours picking her name. Criteria: a name which could not be shortened (unless we liked all nickname possibilities .. ie. I love the name Elizabeth ... do not however like the name Betsy), a name that was not common but not unusual at the same time, and of course we both had to love it. As James was reading the baby name book he stopped on 'Blair' and right away we both loved it. So Blair it was ... and we were so happy with our name choice. Little did we know that almost anyone and everyone would have an opinion about her name. Most common: 'That's a boy's name' ... in our defence it was in the girl name section of the book and while in no way is she named after this ... Gossip Girl people! We also get: 'That's unusual' ... these people obviously did not watch Facts of Life. There have been many others ... all of which creating more and more doubt about her name. Did we pick the right one? Will she hate us for it? And I will admit that I have tried to think another name for her but everytime I come back to Blair. She is a Blair.

Thankfully lately I have received some positive comments including: 'I love that name!'. Finally.

So I'm getting to my point ... why does everyone and anyone feel they have the right to comment on names of children? Obviously there are people out there who don't like our childrens' names, I get that ~ but I really don't need to hear if you don't like it.

What's in a name is alot of heartfelt thought by parents, parents who are picking a name that their children have to carry with them. What's in a name is time and love and so much more.

I may not like all the names I hear ~ but I will never say anything negative regarding a name to a parent, because they invested love and time and don't deserve that ... like all our mothers said: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.