What's in a name?

*That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet*

When I was pregnant with Conor we had his name picked out even before we knew he was a "he". In coming to our decision Morgan and I actually got into some pretty big arguments because we each had pretty strong ideas on what our (future, possibly hypothetical) son would be named and neither of us liked the other's name. I liked the lovely Matthew Charles and Morgan liked (God help me) Owen something or other. Seriously, GAG. (Haha, Babe, aren't I FUNNY?)

When we decided on Conor Patrick is was honestly like the heavens parted and a grand light shone upon our heads while a chorus of angels sang a celestial song. OK, perhaps a bit of hyperbole there but his name just clicked and there was no questioning it.

So, when we found out we were having a girl we began thinking of girl names and kept waiting for the heavens to part again. We developed a short list (Allison, Leah, Maelle and Finley) and I began to doodle her name everywhere. I"m pretty sure that was in December and as the months ticked by and all the other soon-to-be-moms began revealing their baby names I began to get a little panicky. But the heavens just wouldn't part. We liked all the names and some we felt were unbearably cute and perfect but nothing SANG to us. I really wanted to have some singing.

I never did get my singing but eventually I kept running the name over in my head enough times that it BECAME her name.

Ladies and gentlemen, the next time you see my belly, you will know it is the current residence of one Miss Finley Clare Walsh.

I love this name for so many reasons the first of which is the way we came up with it. So, we're sitting around one night watching Law and Order (because that's how we roll, yo) and one of the characters is this guy named Finn. (Incidentally a really bad Irish mobster.) And we both agreed that it was really cute name but it seemed like a nickname not a full name. So I got to thinking about full names from which we could use Finn as a nickname (this was when I was certain I was having a boy)...Finnegan, eh...Finneaus, bleck...Finley, oh that's cute, but that's a girl name and we're having a boy so...

So, a few weeks later and surprise (to no one but me) we're having a girl! So now Finley becomes a reality. Or at least a very real contender on the short list of girl names.

Ok, so the second thing I love about her name is the family tie that she unintentionally has. Turns out that Lyn's father's mother's maiden name was Finlay (possibly even Finley but I think it was Finlay) so even though we weren't shooting for a family first name, we got one by completely random default. I think that is just really cool. Also, her middle name, Clare. My great-grandmother's name (my mother's father's mother) was Clara. And while I couldn't quite stomach Clara I love, love, love Clare. Also, there is County Clare in Ireland and Morgan and I love tying in our Irish heritage.

Finally, on a quick look through babycenter.com's list of the most popular baby names, Finley ranks at number 608. We almost changed it to Olivia Clare (we would have called her Liv, how cute is that?) but then I discovered that Olivia was the #4 most popular name in 2009 and we were going for a little bit more distinctive (I know, I should have picked 'Taneha'!) and so she became Finley.

Ahhhhhh, it feels so good to have it out in the open. I have a daughter and her name is Finley.