Show & Tell Tuesday – Names!

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Joining Andrea @ Momfessionals for her Show & Tell Tuesdays series!  Today she is talking about names….how you chose the names for your babies or how your own name was chosen! 
So let’s start from the beginning!  My mom and dad were convinced I was going to be a boy and thus I was deemed Christopher Scott and they gave it no further thought.  Now, if you have been following at all you know that my mom’s strong point is not, in fact, making a decision so thank goodness back then women remained in the hospital for multiple days or I may have been brought home Baby X.  My dad’s middle name was Joe so they settled on that for a middle name and thanks to my sweet Aunt Debbie who threw out the name Shelly it stuck….Shelly Jo.  
First pregnancy and I anxiously awaited my first sonogram so I could know whether I was having a boy or a girl and that little stinker would not cooperate.  I had no clue whether I was having a boy or a girl and had so many names I loved.  Favorite boy names were Cade and Dillon and I initially picked Taryn for a girl.  The movie Cocktail changed all that for me and I fell instantly in love with the name Jordan and it could not have been more perfect for my first born!  I don’t remember why I loved Ashlee so much but it flowed well so Jordan Ashlee it was!  Since I was not married at the time it seemed like an amazing idea to give her both my maiden name and her dad’s last name…she did not appreciate the uniqueness growing up with 4 names!  
Flash forward to baby number two and Jordan really wanted a sister named Amy Jo and I was leaning towards Morgan.  I really never even gave it a thought that I was carrying a boy until the sonogram confirmed it!  I decided since Jordan’s name could be used for a boy or a girl I wanted another name the same and settled on Quinn or Riley.  Living in College Station with the Aggies and loving R.C. Slocum, I put Riley Cole together and decided it was a winner and we could call him R.C…..which we rarely have.  I have always felt like his name fit him perfectly but he hated it when he was little because so many girls were named Riley.  
A short eight years later and I had a very long list of boy names once we found out the sex.   Keith’s name is actually James and he was insistent that whatever we named him is what we would call him.  I loved James Cade but he was not going for it.  Other contenders I loved were Keaton, Austin, Dakota but in the end it came down to Andrew or Dillon and eventually Dillon won out.   Dillon Keith it is and again it is perfect.  
I’m not sure if it was because I knew it was my very last chance to name a child or what but Carly Jo was the very hardest to choose.  We absolutely knew Jo would be her middle name since it is both my middle name and my mother-in-law’s middle name but I seriously had a very long list:  Olivia, Rachel, Savannah, Abby, Emily.  Olivia was my number one choice as I wanted to call her Livy Jo.  After realizing her initials would be OJ, Jordan and her best friend began to refer to her as Tropicana.  My mom really didn’t like it at…all.  So how did I finally settle?  Well, if you list our names by age (Shelly, Keith, Jordan, Riley, Dillon, Carly) the pattern of the number of letters is 6/5/6/5/6/5 (even with Keith’s real name James) and my first and third born end with an N and the second and fourth a Y.  Yes…for real that is how I decided!   For the first few months I just wasn’t feeling her name and still thought I should have fought harder for Olivia but then her little personality began to develop and we instantly knew there was no other name but Carly Jo.  
On a side note, when the nurse was checking me in with Carly and asked if we had a name Keith blurted out Stormy Jo and the nurse said “sounds like a stripper.”  
A few things that were important to me when picking a name:
Can you yell the first and middle together easily?
Do the initials spell anything?
Do any negative nicknames come to mind?
Can you sing the rhyming name song.?  Jordan, jordan, bo, bardin….you know the one.  Let’s just say there is a name out there (maybe more than one) that will give a negative result.  Ha!  
I was never able to keep the name a secret but I know alot of people can and I will say if you can that is the way to go.  Before the baby is born everyone will give you their opinion on the name but once that little bundle of joy pops out, regardless of the name you choose, no one will say a word.  At least not to you directly!  
So fun!  Thanks Andrea for hosting.  
You can see previous Show and Tell posts below!