Toddle Along Tuesday - Baby Names

 

This is my first time linking up with Toddle Along Tuesday. And this week's segment is all about baby names. Which is funny because I have posted a few times in my blogging career about how we chose our daughter's name. And now, I get to share the story yet again!

My daughter's name is Natalya Elise. And at first when I heard the name, it was not a name I ever heard before. Not common, Russian {which I'm obsessed with Russian names} and overall cute. Now that this is my daughter's name, everywhere we go, someone is named Natalya. It's crazy how common this name actually is around here. Here I thought I'd have a daughter with a creative, unique name. Not the case. I swear I hear someone say her name everywhere we go only to see they are talking to someone else. But you know, that's ok. I mean, someone somewhere is going to have your name no matter what. Unless it's just so over the top ya know.

So how we came up with the name....actually how I came up with the name.
Back in 1997, I was in tenth grade and me and my brother's favorite video game at the time to play was Nintendo 64's GoldenEye. It was an obsession. I played so long he actually started charging me money to play the game. But James Bond's sidekick was a girl named Natalya and I fell in love with the name always keeping it in the back of my head.

So once I became pregnant with my daughter, I had a few names in my head I was considering. Almost all of them Russian names. I love Russian names. Not to mention some of my heritage is Russian and I've always had a fascination as a child with Russian things. So I know I would name my first child with a Russian name. 
But which one? I had about five I played around with. But starting to narrow down the names, I kept going back to Natalya. And everyone I talked to always agreed they liked the name Natalya.

And of course, her father {my husband now} did not care. He said as long as he could pronounce it and spell it, that was good enough for him. Which I loved because I wanted full freedom without the arguments of agreeing on a name.

So in the end, Natalya it was. I love the name and am glad I chose it for her. I think it fits her perfectly. As for a nickname, we call her Natty. But it's funny that I can say my child was named after a video game. I think that really constitutes me as a nerd...hahaha oh well. It's true.

Now that we are pregnant again, I do have a boy and a girl name already in my mind, but still it is all up in the air. Especially if it is a boy.... I think my husband wants to name it after him and that is out of the question. I don't do Jr's or anything like that. So this time around depending on the gender, may be war.


6 comments

  1. Congrats on being preggies again and remember not to share the name in the Blogsphere as someone will steal it!!!

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  2. I think Natalya is a seriously awesome name and I love the story about why you gave her the name too. Best of luck when it comes to picking a name for baby number two as well!

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  3. I've never heard the name Natalya before I came across your blog. I think it's beautiful! And being a geek myself, I think the origin of it is pretty awesome. :) We're considering naming our next kid out of the show Firefly, to keep up the trend because our daughter is Kaylee. I wish my husband was as lenient as you, he is picky as heck when it comes to baby names!

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  4. Indeed an informative article. I have collection of Russian baby names. I develop this liking after visiting suggestbabynames.com and have found ideas like this.

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  5. I love the name Natalya! I was obsessed with that James Bond game too! My brother and I played it all the time.
    When I wrote fiction in school it always had a Russian bad guy because I love it ... I speak a little Russian too.

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    (¸¤ Lanaya | xoxo
    www.raising-reagan.com

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