People have been asking, and advancing various guesses, as to what we are calling little ZXL as a nickname. elgecko says he's been pronouncing it "zixel" in his head; danea has suggested "zexy," which I admit has a certain appeal. The one thing we're not calling him so far is "Zach," which seems too big for him just now. Zach is a big husky high school kid; our little Creature isn't a Zach just yet. He probably will be someday, but I figure I'll leave that for him to decide on when he wants a more adult sounding name. For now he's Z, occasionally Mr. Z (not to be confused with mr_z). And for elgecko and others who tawk funnie, that's "zee," not "zed." ;-)

I need a Z icon! As soon as I'm allowed to climb the stairs and can get to the pc w/ Photoshop installed...

Day Four Billion, Twelve Thousand, six hundred ninety two: Still pregnant.

And yes, we do have a name picked out. No, we're not telling. :) I'd like to, but I am sworn to secrecy. I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you...and frankly, I don't have the energy.

Wow, boy names are hard. You can be more or less endlessly creative with girl names, but boy names are mostly either hopelessly traditional or absurd. Some are even absurdly traditional or traditionally absurd.

I am all about famiy names, but man, we have so few good boy names in our family. My grandfather was George, and Aaron's grandfathers were James and something else equally uninspiring.

It's much easier to think of things not to name a boy. First we have to cut out anyone I've ever dated. That's a good dozen or so names right there. Then we cut out our close friends' names. Oh, we could get away with Ben, since that's Aaron's dad's name, but not only do we know two other Bens, Aaron isn't wild about the whole naming-after thing anyway.

Then there are friends' kids' names...so far very few of our friends have kids, and few of those are boys, but there go 5 or 6 more. (If we had a good reason for repeating a name, like naming after a relative, we'd go for it--but if we're just picking a name we like the sound of, we'd rather not repeat.)

I don't want to go with anything too ethnic, since it would be obvious I couldn't legitimately claim the ethinicity. I claim French by adoption, of course, but Americans usually can't pronounce French names, and I'm not about to name my kid something that will get perpetually mangled.

So what's left?

Don't think I haven't considered Miles. :) I just don't think I want to be that obvious--and we do know a Miles, albeit distantly.

I've been thinking about Zachary; I like the sound of it, and as a bonus, the kid wouldn't have to learn to spell, he could just slash a big Z, like Zorro. :) But it's rather religious--it means "remembered by god," which seems a bit much. Plus I'm not sure how I feel about Zach as a nickname.

Aaron likes Xavier, which means "bright," and the same signature-initial coolness factor as Zachary, but it seems a bit, I dunno, large for a little kid. It's a cool name at 25, but at 5? And it doesn't abbreviate down to a nickname very well. Xav? How do you pronounce it, long A or short? Plus there's the problem where people try to pronounce the X like a syllable. Ex-avior? No, he's the current Avior, thanks very much.

I'm partial to Gareth, which has a good meaning ("gentle"), and has a King Arthur story behind it, but the obvious nickname is Gary, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Likewise Corwyn; Corey as a nickname is not bad, but...I'm just not sure. Tristan is another King Arthur name I like, but that's a hell of a backstory to saddle a kid with--like naming him Romeo. (Not that Gareth's story is particularly cheerful either.)

Gavin and Talin (or Talan, or Talyn) have come up also. We know a Talan, but distantly, and telynor's son is named Gavin, but she's all the way in England, so I'm sure she wouldn't mind. :) Update 11/5/07 - Aidan, Colin, and Connor are also in the running. 12/10/07: Grant, Graham (or Graeme), Malcom, and Kyle have also been put forth.

Good thing I have another 5 months to think about this!

Or my name, at least.

See, I'm named after my grandmother, on my father's side. And I hardly ever meet other Joyces. And according to the Social Security Administration's website, there's a reason for that: my name was not only pretty unpopular when I was born, it has gotten increasingly less trendy as time goes on.

Rank in 1972: 206
Rank in 1930 (I'm not sure when my grandmother was born, but I'm estimating): 18
Rank in 2006: 831

Man. Not exactly making a comeback, am I?

(Joy never even makes it to the top 100, going back all the way to 1907.)