Day Ten

What She Wore: Jean capris; purple LSU t-shirt (Happy Homecoming); black, strappy sandals.

A while back someone asked how Charlie got his name. I'm a name nerd, so I thought today would be a great time to share.

My husband had only one requirement for our child's name: he wanted it to have family significance. You'd think this would be easy, but my husband is uber-cajun, and his family tree is filled with names like Aristeed and Clothilde. I wasn't really ready to go there. Also, our last name is quite French, and I didn't want anything that would clash too much with it.

I had my own ideas. I didn't want anything too popular, and one of my top-picks has become kind of trendy lately, so it became Charlie's middle name. Honestly, Charlie's becoming quite a hit these days as well, but I didn't know it at the time. I really like old-man names like Sam and Max, so I wanted something like that. So, I picked Charles off the family tree, and gave it an old-man nickname. If he wants to be Charles when he's older, then he's got the option. I also liked that St. Charles Avenue is a famous street in New Orleans--the New Orleans connection is a bonus for me.

So, that's how we got his name. We had a backup name as well that fit all the criteria--French, classic, family significance, old-man nickname, and it also has that New Orleans bonus. Anybody want to guess what we picked?

PS: If you're a closet nerd junkie like me then you owe it to yourself to check out what I consider to be the name mecca--The Baby Name Wizard. It's all good: the Name Voyager, the blog, and the book.