And Her Name Will Be...

Langley Elizabeth Austin

I'm one of those people who have kept a list of potential baby names since I was something like 12 years old. I know, don't judge me :-) I clearly remember making the first list. "Mary Anne" was my favorite name for a girl -- just like my favorite Babysitter's Club character. In the past 15 years my favorite girl names have ranged from Mary Anne to Corbin to Abigayle (none of which we would ever use now,) but when real life happened and we had to choose a real name for a real child, I found the task challenging!

I always knew my first daughter's middle name would be Elizabeth. Elizabeth is my middle name, as well as my mom's, nanny's, and great-grandmother's. So, Elizabeth was already settled (good thing Josh was ok with this.) But the first name...I had a list of about 30 names that could be options. I wanted a name that had some meaning, something special about it, and not too commmon but definitley not too weird or hard to spell. I was also working around my mother who taught 2nd grade for 20 years and had several "no way" names. Who can blame her? You don't want to look at your beloved grandchild and have visions of a devil child. There were some names on the list that Josh immediately crossed off - he didnt want to picture a devil child from summer camp when he looked at his own precious off spring. So, those were a few of our challenges.

I went through the list first and crossed off names I wasn't crazy about anymore and names that didn't go with Austin. Josh went through the rest crossing off the ones he didn't like, leaving us with 2 or 3. That's it - all those years of keeping a name list and we crossed off all but 3! Then we came together and discussed the name finalists. You know, does it sound right if you have to yell it, would her initials be obscene, do we like what the name represents, etc.

Langley was the only option at that point. Langley was my maternal great-grandmother's maiden name. I love that. I love family names. I love that it was hard to even find the meaning of Langley when I googled it - it's definitley not too common. I love that you can tell Langley is a girl - at least in my opinion.

To be honest, I stole the name from my aunt. She has 2 boys, but one of them would have been Langley, if born a female. I got her blessing on using the name.

So, "baby girl" is now officially Langley. We are happy with it. I do have a boy name just in case. I do reserve the right to change my mind about Langley at any second - but she would just be nameless again, because we don't have any other options!

By the way:

• I went to the doctor yesterday and Langley weighs 3 lbs and 6 oz.
• Her weight and measurements put the due date about 5 days earlier (well the machine said it, not the doctor)
• She was not cooperative (AGAIN) during the ultrasound. Think tuck position. Both legs pulled into her chest. Perfect form. Little stinker. Doctor Martin did get a "between the legs" view, but apparently having her legs tucked could possibly cause some shadows - so again she would only say "this has to be a girl, I mean as best I can tell..." My girl is already being slightly dramatic.
• I had my glucose test, rho gam (sp?) shot, and registered at the women's center. I always leave the doctors office overwhelmed. It gets more real each visit!