Disclaimer: Every mother and father in this world has EVERY right to name their children whatever they choose, regardless of other’s opinions.
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Craig and I have very strong “rules” pertaining to naming a child. Of the utmost importance, we both want a name that is appropriate when our child is a baby, teen, college grad and grandparent. We like “tried and true” names. Classics. Nothing trendy, nor cute-sy. No names that cross gender lines and make people question, “Is that name for a boy or a girl?”
With Kate, it was easy. She was our first, and we came up with 2 boy names and 2 girl names before her birth (we didn’t find out the gender). We liked “Kate” because it is a strong name. It is a name all on its own. She can be a cute kid with that name, and still be taken seriously in the working world. We also liked it because it couldn’t be shortened into a nickname (a rule broken with Madelyn).
While pregnant with Maddie, we couldn’t come up with any girl names that we BOTH really, really loved. But we also thought Madelyn was a boy, so we headed to the hospital ready to duke it out between “Sam” or “Max”.
It took us a while in the hospital to come up with a name. “Madelyn” had never been on any list either of us had. The biggest thing Craig needed to overcome was the fact that she needed to be “Madelyn” vs. “Maddie”. He wasn’t comfortable with her legal name being just Maddie, but it broke one of his major rules of “naming a kid what you are planning on calling her”. Mostly, that strong opinion stems from a tradition of sorts in his mom’s family…a lot of them have always been called their middle names. Why was his mom named Edith, with the middle name of Diane, and called Diane? Why not just name her Diane Edith in the first place?
While discussing the name Madelyn, one point I had was that many other Maddie’s seemed to actually be Madisons, as Madison/Addison is popular trend right now. Madelyn is a very classic, traditional name. And even though she’d go by Maddie as a child, she would always have the formal, “resume” name of Madelyn.
After days of deliberation (and a little pride-swallowing by Craig), Madelyn Rose she was! We signed her official paperwork quite pleased with our decision.
Fast-forward nearly 5 months, and BabyCenter’s list of Most Popular Baby Names 2008 includes Madeline in the Top 10!!!
GASP!!
BabyCenter does combine like-sounding names, even though spellings are different. So, our Madelyn is being added in with Madelines and every other spelling variation (we have a little friend Madilynn born in early 2008). I would argue that Madeline is not the same name as Madelyn, and would use Caroline Kennedy as an example. Not that I know her personally, but I have a feeling that if you called her “Carolyn”, she’d correct you.
Craig was heartbroken when he heard the news. We aren’t “trendy name” people! He’s panicky, envisioning 5 other Madelyns on her soccer team. I tried to reassure him that Madelyn may be popular right now, but it is not “trendy”. That name has been around for ages. But no amount of reassurance from me made him OK with this news.
Would you believe that much discussion of calling her “Rose” is underway?!?!
