I’ve always loved baby names. When I was in elementary school (okay, I continued this ridiculousness into middle school high school college, don’t judge me), I would keep a 5×7 note card of my “claimed” future children’s names in my mom’s recipe file. While Caroline cooked dinner, I would write down all the names I didn’t want my brother or sister to use when they had kids so that I could have them for my own children (selfish much?). None of the names I claimed as a 9 15 22 year old were even names we considered for actual McKiddles (mostly because Mr. B didn’t like any of them. Someone should have told young Emily the husband gets a say in naming children, too), but that’s beside the point: if I could make a living researching baby names (and giving people my unsolicited opinions on names), I’d be all over it.
I like names that are family oriented: I like our kids to be connected to the generations before them, to be a part of a much bigger history. For boys, I want the name to sound strong and powerful when announced over a high school stadium loudspeaker, be a classic Irish Catholic boy’s name, and sound dignified and respectable in the workforce in a few decades. For girls? I still like classic, family names, don’t want them to be overly frilly because McKevitt girls will be encouraged to play sports as well, want them to work well for a kid and an adult, and want them to look elegant on a wedding invitation in several decades.
Nell’s name was jokingly a part of our marriage contract – I told Mr. B that I would take McKevitt as my last name – not that I ever intended not to take it, but I figured I’d give it a shot – if we could name our first daughter Nell to honor my maiden name – McDonnell. I loved that it’s a real, established name but not overly used (there were only 32 Nells born in the United States last year), and the connection to my maiden name won me over. With a short and simple first name, I wanted a multi-syllabic middle name and liked the sounds of Caroline and Madeline with Nell, and Caroline was the obvious front runner because of my mom. So Nell Caroline it was for our first daughter.
With our girl’s name decided upon since we were engaged, I’ve always noticed other Nells – when they pop up I take note. When Mr. B, Thomas and I were in Portland last summer, we were walking around the city and I happened to look down at the cement as we passed a shop and engraved in the cement was: “Tom + Nell”. I made Mr. B stop to look and he asked me if I wanted to take a picture of it – I said “No, that would be ridiculous – I’m not pregnant and who wants a picture of cement?” and we kept walking. Just over 9 months later, we had our own Tom and Nell. I wish I’d taken that picture now.
And with Thomas Kirby and Nell Caroline, we’ve exhausted the list of baby names Mr. B and I agree on. So should we have a third child, it’ll be a long 9 months of naming debates. Do you have criteria for naming (real or hypothetical) babies?
PS – I’m hoping to have Nell’s nursery done this week so that I can post it next week and have a few other projects in the works – I promise not to dwell on family posts forever, but bear with me while we get things settled around here 
I can totally relate! I life guarded in high school and college and I would listen to all the names and think about if I wanted to add any that I heard to my future children’s name list. I also like my kid’s names to be traditional but not overused. And all three of our kid’s have a family tie in the name. My husband was AWFUL with the names. With any that I got really excited about, I learned to wait for just the right moment to share it so it wouldn’t get immediately vetoed.
My daughter’s name Kit is similar to Nell I think. I love it!
Jennifer
Will didn’t like to talk about names til we knew gender, whereas I loved talking about it the whole nine months so I basically drove him crazy for the first half. He and I both like family names for middle names and their first names are just names we liked. But heaven help us if we ever have a boy!!!
We have pretty similar styles although the names we chose are a bit more common – Anne (Annie) and Lucas (Luke). I also had a girl name I loved that was vetoed by my husband (Kaitlin) – I’m actually glad about that now because I really hate how many ways Kaitlin can be spelled.
I love Nell’s name and the story of her name as well. I know that she will love hearing that story when she gets older. Since we have a very common last name, I like to pick not so common first names. That being said, I don’t care for made-up completely unique names. So, I go by the guideline, A name you have heard before, but not everyday.
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And I totally hear you on agreeing with your husband on a name. It would be so much easier if we could just choose it and be done with it.
Bill and I do the same as Will and Liz – first name is a favorite and the middle name is a family name. Sarah Beverly has my mother’s name as her middle and Rebecca Catherine has Bill’s grandmother’s middle name, hence Catherine with a C. I didn’t have a lot of input with Will’s name. He was William Jennings Holman V and we are both very proud to carry on the name. I did however get to decide what we would call him as he grew up. I wanted to use William since his father was Bill (Billy to the older generation but I could never see myself calling a grown man Billy) and his grandfather was Bill too. Will was able to decide on his preference of address when he was old enough to decide and he like Will and so do we. Rebecca ended up making her choice later and she prefers Becca. Sarah is Sarah with an ‘h’ and proud of it. Our girls always had middle name options to use if they weren’t crazy about their first given name. William on the other hand couldn’t see himself as a ‘Jennings’ so had fewer options. We do not want any one to have to carry on the tradition. It’s the parents choice and they can name their child whatever they like. I am so proud to be a mother and grandmother. Grandchildren are the best. I can’t wait to get out to Denver and meet all of my sister’s new grandchildren.
Do you know where the Portland “Tom & Nell” is? I’m a long time blog reader and am in Portland next week. I would love to get the picture for you.
I think I remember us blog-discussing previously the sports announcer thing–I also think of how a name would sound being said at a sporting event for both girls and boys! I love pretty classic names as well. Also, names that can have a nickname when they’re younger, but can also be something more classic when they’re older, which is how we settled on Elizabeth. We are having some SERIOUS trouble thinking of anything for our second though, so feel free to send many suggestions our way!
PS- If you remember where the Tom + Nell cement was in Portland, I’d be happy to try and snap a photo for ya the next time we’re up there!
I’m not even sure how I found your blog – but I have enjoyed following for awhile now. I was so excited to see you named your daughter Nell. We have a Nell too!! Our Daughter’s name is Ruth Nell but we call her Nell. Ruth Nell is my mothers name and Nell Marie is my grandmothers name. In addition Ruth is my middle name and my great aunts name… basically, both names run up and down my side of the family. Anyway!!! I love the name and I love the connection to your maiden name. Our Nell turned 1 on June 17th. Her sweet happy personality fits her name perfectly, as I am sure will be the same case for your little Nell!
I love Nell’s name SO much. I think it’s a perfect girl’s name.
My naming criteria is it has to be biblical/Hebrew and it can’t be too common. Boy names are easy for me and there are a ton I love – Isaac (duh, haha), Silas, Samuel, Judah, Levi, Titus…and that’s just a few. Girls names are WAY harder. Biblical girl names tend to be either super common (Sarah) or super weird (Bathsheba). If this baby is a girl, her name will be Miriam, but we plan to have several kids and if we end up with more than one girl, we are in trouble, because the only other girl name I really like is Maris and Chad says a big heck no for that one. I guess we’ll cross that bridge if/when we get to it.
I couldn’t agree with you more on the names and absolutely love the name Nell Caroline. My entire family are name snobs and my Mom and aunts have always called the made up/trendy names plastic names…LOL! I used to HATE my name when I was younger (Ellen-Elizabeth Bettis Lee), talk about a mouth full. However, my name is very uniquely mine (both my great grandmother’s names and my middle name Bettis is a maiden name in my family and I am the last one of my generation to have it. Of course I will be passing that gem on. At any rate, when I first heard about this book “Bring Back Beatrice” and read the forward, it encompassed all my thoughts and criteria regarding names. I think you should totally read it! http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bring-back-beatrice-jennifer-griffin/1100304966?ean=9780761164012
Enjoy and many blessings to you and your family!
I love that you found “Tom+Nell” on the sidewalk… you’ll have to go back!
It’s such an original name without being anything crazy. I like it. 
Rob and I picked out baby names before we got married 5 years ago… Ms. Katherine Isabella was named a LONG time ago… haha… however, we’re now out of girl’s names we agree on… so here’s hoping “John Patrick” is the next child to arrive.
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Love this post! I too have debated over hypothetical children’s names since elementary school, writing them all out in Christmas card form
They all have to sound good together and flow nicely right?
i love her name so very much – and i love that it means something – i think that’s so special. it’s such a strong name but also feminine
Beautiful. I love her name. And I am giggling at your description of your pre-marriage agreement, because I had the same conversation with my husband about Madeline Grace. Four years later, she was here in the flesh.
I love her name so much. It’s so beautiful, classic and unique. How did you find out that Nell was only used 32 times? That’s a neat thing to know. I thought Henry was a unique name. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Hope all is well with you.
Emily, I’ve been out of the loop and am catching up on your blog…Nell Caroline is a beautiful name and she’s a beautiful baby. Congratulations to you, Mr. B, and big brother Thomas!
When my husband and I were deciding on names for our daughter, our major rule was “a classic name that’s easy to spell” because our last name is unusual and constantly mispronounced and misspelled, which is annoying. My husband thought it would be great for our daughter to have the same first initial as mine. I’m Sonya, and had picked out a list of non-S names that my husband didn’t like, so I suggested Sophie. Sophie and Sonya have the same meaning, so kind of a nod to me, and Sophie is French in origin and my husband is French-Canadian, so it’s a nice tie to his heritage. He loved it and didn’t want to consider anything else. I had really wanted to use my dad’s name, Gary, for a boy, so once we decided on Sophie, my husband suggested we give her my dad’s middle name, Lynn, as her middle name. My husband also liked that Lynn gave her name a southern touch, a nod to my family heritage. So Sophie Lynn it is!