I always love hearing people tell me the story of how they came up with their children's names. Sometimes, the names are based off a dearly loved family member, or sometimes it's a family tradition to pass down a name from one generation to the next. Or it could be that the name was from a character in a book, or a childhood friend had a sister with that name and you liked it....

What I love is that we can gather inspiration from so many places when it comes to baby names. And yes, as fun as it sounds writing down every name you like, it's also a super stressful thing. Trying to decide on a name that you and your spouse like is not easy. I think maybe for 3% of people it is and the rest of the time, it's like pulling teeth. You can't agree.

Why is it so hard? Really? Why is coming up with a name just so freakin' hard? It doesn't seem like it is until you actually start. It's hard because that little person is now going to have to live with that name forever. And the fact you have to make sure you both can agree on it. It's not easy dealing with a name you aren't happy with. I know, I was one of those.... but we will get to that in a minute.

Now as you have all experienced too, I have heard my share of pretty awesome names and some pretty, well, terrible names, to say the least. Sometimes I wonder what are these people thinking! Like for real....creativity is awesome, but sometimes, not cute when it comes to baby names.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE unique names. I think it's awesome to have something different. But not so unique that no one can ever pronounce it, spell it, or give you a normal look when you say it. I went to school with a boy named Pendelflex and a girl named Precious Midget... both in my seventh-grade classes. I wish I could make this stuff up, but it's true. Precious Midget however never let anyone make fun of her. She became the most popular girl in our class and was a beauty queen. I wonder what ever happened to her and if she still goes by her birth name or not.

I'm sure you are all wondering if I'm going on this little rant, where did the names for my kid's come from. Now, I really never decided on my children's names until I saw them. I had names in my head. In fact, I had a notebook filled with pages of names I adored throughout the years since I was young. Always keeping notes on names I liked when I heard them. But never fully picked until after their births.

When I was pregnant with my first child, I had several names I loved. Names that I had picked out forever ago. I knew I wanted to name my child something that wasn't common. No Amy, or Claire, or Sarah.... not that I have anything against these names. I have a common name and I hated being the fourth Rebecca in my class every year. I just thought something less known would be great but still a name that wasn't too crazy.

When my first daughter was born, my husband really didn't care about the name choices I asked about. All he cared about was that he could pronounce it and that he could spell it. I'm thinking, "Wow! This is too easy! I didn't realize how much of a breeze this was going to be." And so we decided on a name for her. Her name ended being Natalya after the Nintendo 64 game "Goldeneye". Yes, we named our daughter after a video game character. And why not? I used to be obsessed with that game when it hit the stores when I was a sophomore in high school. I played it non-stop with my brother. I couldn't stop playing it. It was just that good. Anyone that used to play knows exactly what I'm talking about, right?

Well, where does Natalya come into all this? Natalya was James Bond sidekick in the game. I fell in love with it. I loved the name and the husband did too. So, Natalya it was! Our little girl was going to be a video game baby.


Funny thing was, the only time I had ever heard that name was in that game. I never again heard it. But then after she was born, everywhere I turned, everyone...everywhere was named Natalya. It was insane!!! The nurse at the doctor's office, the cashier at Walmart, the teacher at her daycare....everyone. I would be in a store and hear her name called only to turn around and it would be for someone else. Natalya, I soon found out, has been an extremely popular name. Why hadn't I ever heard it before? I guess it's just one of those things.

When I found out I was pregnant with our son, we didn't know the gender or want to know actually. So I started thinking about boys and girls names. Since I always wanted to stick with the theme of Russian names for my children, I was only thinking about those possibilities. My husband, on the other hand, was not. In fact, he was against it. Every name I brought up to him he hated. He said that this baby, he knew in his heart, was going to be a boy and it would be named after him.

Oh hold up.....no way. I was not going to name my child after his father. No way, no how. I wasn't going to. I am not a fan at all of "Jrs"...I'm just not. And I got seriously stressed out over this. So much in fact, I would cry when I would start trying to talk him out of it. But he kept saying he wasn't budging on the name. I got to name the first, so he gets to name the second.

Bad deal on my end LOL....I should have let him choose the first name. But anyway, I was hoping so bad it would be another girl just so that we wouldn't have to argue about this anymore and we wouldn't have to have a "Jr" ......well, three weeks before I gave birth, we decided to just have a gender reveal party because my parents wanted to be able to be a part of all this and they couldn't for my first pregnancy. So at 36 weeks, we found out what the baby was going to be. And it was indeed.......a BOY!

So now, I really had to try and force myself to get him to change the name choice. He got even more mad. So I eventually let it go. When I finally had my baby, I never even told the hospital his name. So they just called him "Baby Boy Hope" on everything. But things went downhill right after his birth and at two days old, he had to have emergency surgery to save his life.

During the days of his recovery, I finally told the doctors and nurses his name and I ended it with, "But I just hate it so much." And I did.... for two years I hated his name. I could not call him by it. I just don't like the name at all. So, I gave him his own name for myself. I called him "Boopers".... and that'ss what he went by. I called him that so much that when I said his real name, he wouldn't respond. It was quite funny. But now, I'm finally to the point where i don't hate his name anymore and I'm ok with saying it.

And I'm sure you are all wondering what his name is............well, it's Reggie Jr. But I call him Reg for short. Granted since if I say "Reggie", my husband always thinks I'm talking to him and not our son. So Reg is better...I still call him Boopers, though a lot. But he got his name from his daddy.

And then there is our youngest. Little Miss Larissa. She's a sassy little one. She's the most handful child out of the bunch. She will have your head spinning. When I was pregnant with her, we didn't want to find out the gender at all. We had no desire to know and I really wanted the surprise at birth.

So even though I had my list of names, I never really thought much about names during this pregnancy. I mentioned a few here and there for both a boy and a girl, but we didn't argue about it, we didn't stress over it...it was just nice not to really think about it. I figured I would wait to see what gender the baby would be when born to figure it out. I thought maybe looking at the baby would make it easier to choose a name.

When they announced she was a girl, I was so happy. I wanted another little girl and with all the things we had just gone through with our son, I was scared to have another boy because I thought maybe something terrible would happen again like it did. For two days, the nurses would ask me, "what's her name?" and I would reply I just don't know quite yet.

I didn't want to rush into a name and I had one nurse get very upset and pushy with me about it because she said she wanted to get paperwork finished and the baby couldn't go home without a name. I had one in mind but was thinking maybe something else will come up that's even better. But the more I looked at her, the more I kept coming back to this particular name.

I decided to name her Larissa. The name came from the actress, Larisa Oleynik. I also loved her name and her roles in movies and Tv shows. And I just kept coming back to that name. And my little Larissa was named after the infamous, Alex Mack, herself! If you don't know who Alex Mack is, Larisa played the character on a popular Nickoledon show back in the 90's called The Secret World Of Alex Mack....among a few awesome movies like The Babysitters Club and 10 Things I Hate About You.


And there you have it! That is where the names of my children came from. Like I said, I'm always so interested to hear where everyone gets the inspiration for their children's names. What makes them choose that particular name and where did it come from. Was it made up or has it been passed down through the family? It's so very interesting.

So tell me, how did you come up with your children's names? Let me know below! I would ove to hear.