Baby names

I have to admit I have always been super annoyed by people who won't "reveal" their baby's name until he/she is born. I've always thought it was so obnoxious to assume that anyone would care about your baby's name so much that you really want to keep it a surprise - no one really cares except the parents! Before anyone reading this who has done that gets offended, let me say this: I now understand. While some parents really are out of perspective about how little their baby's name means to anyone except themselves, I now get that that's NOT the reason why a lot of people hold the name until the baby comes. A much more valid reason is that when the baby is unborn, everyone thinks there is room to decide still and no one has qualms about giving you baby name comments.

A couple of weeks ago, we had settled on a boy's name we both loved. Carson. That was going to be it. We liked the name because it was not too young, not too old and sounds good with our last name (which also starts with C). Then we told people who asked about names. Some responses:

"NOOOOO! I HATE Carson Daly!" (MTV personality)
"Do you WANT alliteration?" (first and last name starting with the same sound - and yes, we did)
"The first person I thought of is Carson Daly, but I didn't want to tell you that."
"That's a weak name. You need something more traditional."

Carson was the name we picked after going through a similar experience with another name we both liked, Connor. My favorite response to that one:

"Oh, I would never name a baby Connor. That was the name of Lacy Peterson's baby." (My mom said this; Lacy Peterson was that woman murdered when 8 months pregnant by her husband.)

Truth be told, these things don't bother me like they do B. But B is immediately dissuaded from any name he previously loved as soon as someone points out a "flaw". We really liked the idea of alliteration, and now he doesn't want to do it. We were SETTLED on Carson, but now he can't think of anything but Carson Daly (whom he can't stand). I'm afraid we will never settle on a name if we keep telling people the newest decision...because no matter what the name is, someone will always have a reason why you shouldn't use it. There is no name that everyone likes!