It's All In The Name

I just recently found the Multiples and More blog (link on the left). It has been fun for me to find blogs of other people who are walking the same road as us. Every week they do a question of the week and I thought I would participate...
How did you chose your multiples' names?There was really no method to how we went about choosing the boys' names. Because it took us so long to get pregnant we have been discussing names for years. Jeff and I usually agreed on most names, but our favorites have changed over time...had we had kids 3 years ago I'm sure Ethan and Evan would have different names. For the longest time we always said that if we had a boy his name would be Scott (Jeff's middle name, his mom's maiden name), so our name discussions were always centered around girl names. We had a ton of girl name options but none really for boys...isn't that how it always goes??
I searched the internet a lot looking at name websites, seeing what celebrities chose for names (although most chose absolutely ridiculous names, so it was not much help). I looked at the Social Security website to see top names from the past years. I originally wanted something a little different and unique (i.e. Slade...anyone watch Desperate Housewives of Orange County), but we decided to stick with more normal names instead. Ethan and Evan were just names we really liked.
Did you stick with family names?Not for the first names (by the time we got pregnant we had changed our minds about the name Scott), but yes for the middle names. James (Ethan's middle name) is my grandpa's middle name. Thomas (Evan's middle name) is Jeff's dad's and pappaw's first name and my great-grandfather's first name.
How do you feel about matchy names?To each their own...and it also depends on your definition of matchy-matchy. Some may say starting with the same letter, like we did, is too matchy. I didn't mind starting with the same letter, I just didn't want anything that sounded too much alike...such as Aiden and Hayden.
Did you worry about their names coordinating?Somewhat. I wanted the names to sound good together but it wasn't a huge concern.
Did you name your babies before you met them, or wait until you saw them to assign names?Definitely before we met them. I wanted to start calling them by their names and get stuff monogrammed before they arrived. Ethan was our first pick for a boy name and we had it picked before we went in for our 20 week ultrasound, so he became baby A and then once we chose Evan he became baby B.
What were your second choices?I said before that we liked a lot of the same names, but we had the hardest time making up our minds. I liked a few more names than Jeff did...William was a top choice for me. I also liked Grant and Griffin. We thought Aaron and Liam for awhile. I also liked the name Brady. Our girl name was Eliana Kathryn had one of them been a girl (calling her Ellie). I like that the name means "God has answered our prayers." Going into the ultrasound we were set on Ethan Thomas and Eliana Kathryn (even though I was sure it was two boys).
Did you consider the popularity of a name as a deciding factor?At first we didn't want any names in the top 10...that's what made us not consider Ethan for awhile, even though we really liked the name. Evan is number 38 on the list, so his name wasn't an issue...normal name, not too popular. If you look on the Social Security Website Ethan an Evan are actually ranked fourth in popularity for twins named in 2008.
I think the names we chose are perfect for the boys...I couldn't imagine them being called anything else. If you want to check out the lives of other people with twins, triplets, or quads...go check out the Multiples and More blog.