Baby girl needs a name!

I didn't realize naming our daughter would be so difficult. I thought that was the fun part!? I blame every bit of stress and agony on myself! I am OCD. I am a planner. I must plan every little detail. I must feel prepared. If I fail at least I know I did everything I could to PLAN ahead.

We both wanted a unique name - nothing TOO common, but nothing too over the top or foreign to the English language. So when choosing a name here's what I considered:

- the spelling and could it be easily pronounced and/or spelled
- the appearance when written in cursive - I swayed away from names starting with the letter I, because I don't like the way "I" looks in cursive or written in script letter. It appears like an "L" in some instances.
- her initials - My initials are AA or AGA (with middle name). I prefer her not to have a double initial like BAA or BBA, etc.
- the appearance of her monogram - My monogram reads AAG and I HATE the way that looks! I've never had anything monogrammed for this reason!
- the name meaning - must have a positive meaning, nothing negative (like devilish) or nothing too biblical (DH is Atheist).

Ok, so I'm little picky with all of these conditions, but we did come up with two favorites:

Option #1 - Helene Gayle (DH's favorite)
Meaning: "bright one" or "shining one" or "light"


We both loved Helene, but we struggled with choosing an appropriate middle name. Nothing seemed to flow well. She needed something short and sweet - maybe one syllable. After vetoing many middle names, DH suggested my middle name - Gayle. Not my most favorite name in the world, but it actually fit, and I wouldn't mind "giving" her my middle name. My oldest sister actually has my mom's middle name, so this was a little bit of a tradition we were starting here, I suppose. The one thing I don't like about this choice is her monogram. She would NEVER be able to have anything monogrammed, because it would appear like this:


Ummmm. No!

I'm ok with her never being about to have anything monogrammed. I did fine without it.

Option #2 and my favorite - Aiyana Helene
Meaning: "forever flowering" or "eternal blossom"


My favorite has always been Aiyana w/ the middle name of Helene. I love Aiyana, but I love Helene too! With this name I feared the spelling/pronunciation aspect. Will she be correcting incorrect pronunciations and spellings all her life? Possibly. But it's so beautiful and unique!

So how are we going to decide? We've decided to wait to name our daughter until we've met her! We'll give her the name that seems to fit her the best.

I wanted to incorporate her name into the nursery in a couple of places, so I'm a little bummed we'll need to wait to "finish" off her nursery. I think in the end though, we'll be more content to name her this way and not have to hear everyone's opinions of either choice for the next few months!

I added a poll to the top right of my blog. We would love to know which name is your favorite!