Name Game

Choosing a name is hard! It's so permanent, and there's so much to wonder… what if it's too trendy, what will it sound like once she's older, and so on and so on! It doesn't help that I'm not a decision maker! I think a boy's name would've been easier for us. A girl's name was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.

So that I can quit referring to her as baby girl or the baby… on May 12th, I think it was, we finally decided on a name, and it is... Kinley Taylor Smithson! 

We hadn't really talked about it TOO much, but one day it seemed like Colt got serious about naming her. He said he looked over and saw her doing flips, and it made him realize we were running out of time and needed to decide on a name!

Here's a little background on her name… I had several names wrote down in my planner and we had weeded them down to a few. The ones we leaned towards were mainly C or K names, with the exception of Elle, and that name was just mentioned and we liked it, but it was never really in the running. The ones that were our favorites were Kinley, Colbie/Kolbie/Kolbi or Callie/Kallie/Kalli (obviously we didn't have spellings figured out on those). 

I had mentioned Kinley but he had said no to it. He says now that when I asked him, we were still so early on in pregnancy that he was just ignoring me and not giving me real answers. Gerald and Allison are naming their little girl Hensley so I think that was another reason that he had nixed it. I still liked it but thought it may be trendy with the "ley" so it basically got took off the list. The names we were really deciding between were Colbie or Callie (we'll just go with those spellings for now to simplify). I really liked Colbie, but he wasn't sold. For some reason, I really like girl names that are unisex, and I also liked how it was spelled with the first three letters of his name. He somehow cameup with Callie, and I wasn't sold at first. He evidently hasn't ever really known a Callie but I know several. Somewhere along the way, he came around to the name Colbie, and I flipped and warmed up to Callie. Ultimately we ended up liking them about equally, and then somehow Kinley got brought back into the mix! I had all the variations of our name choices written on a sticky note on our fridge for a while trying to decide which I liked better and which spellings looked better. I even asked Colt which one sounded better with our names and with the boy name that we'll probably use if we ever have a boy! I also said that we could wait and see which name she looked like, but Colt said all our names "looked" the same and we weren't waiting! 

 As for the middle name, Taylor, I had always said that I had wanted to name a girl my maiden name. Years ago, I had liked the names Taylor Paige or Taylor Brianne for some reason. Colt had always said no to the name Taylor for a first name but said that it was ok for a middle name... so the middle name was pretty much decided for a while.  

Of course it seemed like our parents, and Colt's sister, were starting to ask us more and more often what the name was going to be. Nicci had already started calling her Colbie, but it hadn't stuck yet! When we were visiting my parents the first weekend in May, we mentioned our top names to them. My dad liked Kinley for some reason. He said it would be pretty to write (which it definitely is), but he also mentioned the nickname KT. That was my nickname so I'm pretty sure that's another reason he liked our K names over the C names. My mom didn't outright say it but she said enough to make me think that she didn't really like the name Colbie. She said it reminded her of a boy name and specifically a boy that I grew up and played with when I was little.  A week or so later while I was on the phone with my mom, she asked if we had decided yet.  I said no, and in the background my dad said that he thought we had already decided on Kinley! 

Colt and I started getting more serious about making a decision. Since we liked them all, he said we should just name her Kinley since my dad liked it. I told him my dad wasn't naming our daughter! Colt ended up taking Colbie off the list. Among other reasons I'm sure, he said a girl with the name Colbie would have to be really cute and girlie because if she was a tomboy, she would end up getting made fun of… so it was down between Kinley or Callie (and we were leaning towards Kallie over Callie). He saw the name Callie on a nametag at the hospital and said he liked the way it looked, but I don't think either one of us were dead set on it. My only hesitation on Kinley is that I didn't want to start seeing it everywhere or it end up being the name of every girl in her class at school growing up! However, I haven't ever known anyone with the name Kinley.  I know one Kinsley from college. How the name was actually "decided" is I think Colt ended up calling her Kinley in my stomach one night either before we went to bed or when he was heading to work. It just stuck and we went with it! Within the next day or so, he asked me if I was good with it. I said yes, and we officially had a name! I think he was actually on the phone with his mom when he asked me for sure. I'm pretty sure as soon as I gave the ok, she embroidered something because pretty much immediately she posted a onesie or bib on facebook with her name on it! I did ask Colt just the other day if he was still sure about the name Kinley Taylor Smithson?!! He gave me a look like you have to be kidding me!!

As SOON as we decided on a name, I got on Etsy to order her name sign for her room. Unfortunately, the lady that makes the wooden name sign in the style and font that I liked best won't be able to get it completed until the second week of July. The type A in me wanted to go another route because Kinley is likely to be here before we get the sign, and I would prefer her room be COMPLETELY finished before she arrives! However after looking at other options and at possibly doing a stick on decal instead, we ultimately just ended up ordering it anyways.  Now we just have an empty spot on the wall waiting for it to get here!  

Here's what her name will look like on the sign we ordered, and the other picture below is an example of what we're getting. I can't wait for it to get here!