What's in a name?

I notice when people find out that I am pregnant, the first question they ask is "how many months/how far along are you?" Then the second question will be "is it a boy or a girl?" Then the next question is "do you have a name yet?"

Answering the first two questions is easy, but the third one always make me stammering for answer. Who knew finding a name for your baby-to-be is such a difficult task, not mentioning the pressure to find the "perfect" name that won't mess him/her up in the future. To think about it, it is such a heavy responsibility for parents, as the name will follow the child for the rest of his/her life. I can't understand parents out there who can easily name their kids "Hitler", "Adolf", "Demondlyn" or "Talullah Do The Hula" without blinking an eye. What are they thinking? Do they hate their child so much or were they smoking crack?

I have tons of girl names ready even before I was pregnant. Beautiful girl names are easy to conjure. We have the freedom to be as creative as we can be, even making one up without having to worry about the implications. Society tend to accept unusual girl names as exotic, beautiful, unique. Look at the celebrities' children names out there: Coco, Apple, Violet, Serephina, etc etc. I have reserved Madeleine, Sydney and Aurelia amongst others for a long time.

But when we found out we were going to have a son, my husband and I didn't have any reservations for boy names. With boys, it's a bit tricky naming them. My personal thinking, I like a unique but traditional name and can't be too creative otherwise my poor son will be made fun off throughout school years (and beyond). 

So in the quest for finding a name for my son-to-be, here are the general rules I apply:

1) the name has to sound manly and carry a "weight" to it..u know, elegant and aristocrat-y

2) does not resemble any word (or animal) that can be made fun off 

3) have a positive connotation to it, i.e. no famous villain names or someone we know that we don't quite like to share a name with our child

4) can be shortened for a nice sounding nick name

5) has a meaningful meaning behind it, i.e. a gift from God, etc..

6) if possible, biblical names

7) a bit unique and not belong to the top 10 names (so common that everyone's kid is named that)

8) if possible, with an S initial (this is more like hubby's wish list so the kid's initial can be S.C, as in USC)

9) rhyme well with the last name

10) not a name already used in our family or by our close friends' children (don't want to be called copycat, you know)

Everyday, hubby and I throw each other out names that we can think of but nothing close to our liking. Most of the time we cringe or make funny faces. We google baby names and read several baby name books to no avail. It is so tiring and frustrating, especially with the due date approaching and people asking. It does not mean we don't have any candidate names, we do, but so far we don't feel (yet) any of these names bring that special feeling when we hear it. I want my son to have a name that suits him. Like finding that perfect soulmate or house, you know that feeling that make you scream, "Yes, that's IT!" So we are going to keep compiling candidate names but we'll probably decide on one when the baby arrives. I have a feeling, when we see our baby's angelic face, in his deep slumber, we'll finally find it, a name that will make everybody happy and content.