What Are the Odds?

My brother and sister-in-law are expecting their third baby any day now. They've been scouring the baby name books, checking websites, asking for suggestions and opinions (always dangerous)...

I had to laugh when I got an email from him this morning with this screen shot:

Abby and Noah are TIED for #7!

TIED! Seriously. That is crazy, but not too surprising considering...

Just in this new neighborhood of ours - there are two other Noahs on our street.  One is going into K as well. In Alabama, everywhere we went, I swear, I would hear another mom call out "Abby!" "Abigail!" Between the children's museum and the bookstore one day, there were FOUR Abbys - no kidding.

I thought we had picked less common names. Classic names, not too trendy, but I tell ya, you never know what the trend in going to be. Pat came up with Abby's name just out of the blue one day. When I looked up what it meant, it read: Abigail - born to a joyous father.  Right then, I knew that was supposed to be her name.

For Noah, it was between that or Tyler. A biblical example of faith or a classmate of Pat's who had endured great obstacles in his life - being paralyzed while he was in high school - and rising above it. It was a tough choice, but when Pat commented, "Well, Tyler would be a good football name, and Noah would be a good golf name", I was set on Noah.


It is so hard to choose, but you just have to go with what feels right to you. And if that means your kids are known by their first name and last initial throughout their school career, then so be it.