Show Us Your Life--Names

I was reading one of my favorite mommy blogs and the writer was participating in Show Us Your Life  hosted by Kelly's Korner.  This is the first time I had come across this meme/link-up.  It is pretty cool, because unlike some other weekly memes it has a different question to answer each week and they span a wide variety of topics.  This weeks topic was names for children/future children.  How appropriate!

Since probably the 2nd or 3rd grade I have been playing with name ideas for future children.  The number of notebook pages I have filled with baby names could be called nothing short of ridiculous.  It all started when I found a book of baby names my mom and dad used while trying to name me and my sister (it was all Gaelic/Irish names so I know it wasn't used in naming my brothers).  Over the years, I purchased/acquired a whole slew of different baby name books.  Perhaps I always knew I was meant to be a mother. 

On April 29th, 2007, Ish and I talked about the real possibility of getting married for the first time--it had been talked about briefly in passing before that.  The discussion naturally led to the topic of children.  That was the first time we talked about baby names together.  Since then we have talked about baby names several more times.  When I became pregnant with the Diplomat, our choices for names were pretty much solidified.

If the Diplomat is a girl, we have picked out the name Liliana Rae.  We would be calling her Lily.  For as long as I have been coming up with possible name combinations, some form of Lily has always been in the running.  When I suggested Liliana to Ish, he readily agreed.  We chose Rae in order to honor his mother.

If the Diplomat is a boy, he will be named after his father.  He will be an Ishmael Matthew (Ish's baptismal name, not his birth certificate name).  Originally we had decided on Ishmael Micah, but as my pregnancy has progressed, Ish decided that he would like a junior despite his distaste for the name Matthew.  My family has been trying to figure out a nickname in order to differentiate between my husband and potential Little Ish.  My mom has come up with Squish as the baby will be a squished down (smaller) version of his father.