Favorite Baby Names

Naming a baby is hard! I've don't think I've ever appreciated what my parents went through to name me.

I've heard a few different stories of where my name came from. My Grandma Haslem swears on her life that she named me. Mom will deny this forever. She says that Grandma had nothing to do with my name (I believe her. Grandma thinks she named all the grandkids....) and Dad says he named me after an ex-girlfriend. This is partially true. He really liked the name and so they threw it in the bowl of choices.

However it came about, I love my name. For my generation, it is quite an uncommon name. I've never met anyone my age named Carolyn, or even Caroline (yes...there is a difference. I'll put a sound byte in if anyone is confused). The only Carolyn's that I've met throughout the years have all been about 50+ in age. On the flip side, it is not an abstract name either. I think most people are familiar with the name Carolyn and not a lot of people have trouble remembering it or saying it. It really is a fabulous name:)

So on to naming our baby! I really want to do this right. I want a name that is easy to say and remember, but not something that everyone and their dog is already called. So here is a list of our top choices (I've listed them in a random order so you don't know which are our favorites!):

1. Steele
2. Ryker
3. Briggs
4. Stratton
5. Trayson

I've mulled these choices over about a million times in my head. It is so stressful to pick a baby's name! I'm thinking we will give him 'Ryan' as his middle name, so I keep saying each one with the middle and last name added on to see if it sounds good. I just don't know!

A friend of mine told me to go to a restaraunt and instead of giving them your name, give them the possible baby name you would like to try out that evening. Then you can get an idea of how it sounds when someone else calls it out. I want to try this, but I just don't go out to eat enough! Ha ha!

What do you guys think? Do you have any favorites out of the five?