What's in a Name?

I like my baby names picked out early.  Before this last one, it seemed to work out ok.

Before we picked out the name Isaiah, I really liked the name Diego Vladimir.  Vladimir is Santiago's middle name, and also what I usually call him.  Diego has always been a name I liked.  Santiago didn't feel right about it.  I then told him to choose either Isaiah or Elijah, I wanted something chosen early on.  I liked them both, but was really leaning towards Elijah.  Santiago didn't like Elijah, so Isaiah it was.  We then decided that James, which is English for Santiago and also my great-grandfather's middle name, sounded good as a middle name.  It wasn't until recently while looking through my family history that I realized my great-great-great grandfather and his father were named Elijah.  Also Santiago has an ancestor with that name.  Had I known that before he could of very well been an Elijah.  Too late now!  I think the name Isaiah actually fits him very well.  He doesn't look like an Elijah to me, so I think we did good.  The name Isaiah is more common than I had known, and the poor kid has had to be called Isaiah O. since Kindergarten. 

When I was pregnant with Xavier, we had our girls names picked; Samantha or Alexandra.  I still liked Diego for a boy's name, but Santiago was over it.  There was one thing I was certain of.  Our next boy, if we had one, would have the middle name Ray after my grandfather.  Once we found out that it was indeed a boy, Santiago kept on bringing up the name Xavier.  I thought it was too out there.  I would try to throw out other names like Elijah again, but Santiago stuck to it.  Finally I decided to let him have it, and Xavier Ray sounded good anyways.  Four years later I'm still not sure how I feel about it.  I do think it's a cool name, and at least he shouldn't have to worry too much about being one of many.

The name Samantha has always been a girl name for us, even before we started having kids.  A few weeks before I found out I was pregnant, I could not get the name out of my head.  I was constantly thinking about it.  We had been trying to get pregnant for about five months, and this was the first time I was having these thoughts.  They never left, and after we discovered it was a girl there was no question that she was meant to be Samantha.  Choosing a middle name was a bit more tricky.  We narrowed it down to either Rose (after her grandmother Rosa), or Dianne (my middle name).  It wasn't until I was almost due that I decided I really wanted my daughter to carry on my middle name.  So Samantha Dianne it was.  I have no doubts that the name fits her.  She is our Sam, Sammy, Sam Sam.

I always hoped to have two boys and then two girls.  It just seemed perfect.  From early on the girls names were Samantha and Alexandra; Sam and Alex they would be called.  But after having the kids one by one, the name Alexandra faded and I started to like the name Liliana.  I should've known I was going to be pregnant when I started to have girl name premonitions back in February.  The name Liliana was again constantly in my head, along with other girl names.  When I found out I was pregnant in May, there was no doubt that it was a girl.  I couldn't even think about possible boy names.  All of a sudden though, the names Liliana and Alexandra just didn't seem right.  Poor Isaiah really wanted Liliana, but I just didn't have the conformation.  Santiago and I went through hundreds of names, and nothing really stood out to us.  I thought that maybe for the first time, we would have to see her face in order to name her.  This of course made me very anxious.  How would we pick a middle name without a first name and what if we have her and still can't decide?  One night about a month ago we were going through the names again from the social security website, and there was one name that just stuck out to me.  When I said it aloud, the baby kicked out of nowhere.   I was really surprised that I liked it so much.  Santiago didn't feel one way or another about it, so I just kept it in my head.  Soon the other names felt wrong altogether, and I started to refer to the baby with that name.  It just feels right, no hesitations.  Still it took a lot of convincing for Santiago, but hey, remember the name Xavier?  So I can finally say that we have the name for our baby girl!  The middle name was the most tricky this time, but I believe we have that as well.  We have decided not to tell anyone, it's our little secret until she is here.  I usually think people are weird when they do that, but hey, it's our last!  Approximately 6 weeks left!