it's the most wonderful time of the year....

i realize not everyone shares my love of baby names, but for me today is when the ssa publishes the 2009 popular baby names list. i always love seeing how my kids names have changed in popularity, and check out what the new trend is. this year since i am pregnant, i am even more thrilled.

Carter
Year of birth Rank
2009 50
2008 65
2007 80
2006 75
2005 77
2004 88
2003 102
2002 108
2001 111
2000 152

Mason
Year of birth Rank
2009 34
2008 35
2007 37
2006 40
2005 42
2004 51
2003 54
2002 53
2001 53
2000 64

Hadley
Year of birth Rank
2009 361
2008 417
2007 469
2006 494
2005 623
2004 692
2003 702
2002 875
2001 857
2000 921

although it hasn't been done yet for the 2009 list, there is usually a section where you can see the popular names by state. i like that feature the best. here in MA carter really isn't that popular, last i checked it wasn't even in the top 100.

the next step will be to get a list together of the names i like for baby #4... and as of now i don't think we are going to find out the gender. it was an amazing experience in the delivery room, and really it doesn't matter to me one bit. i won't be setting up the nursery until after the baby is born anyways.

over the years, these are the names we have liked... notice i said we, not i. if it were up to me alone, carter's name would have been reid, and i always suggest it, but craig is just not a fan.

when naming carter, our final names were carter, cameron, and cole. carter was picked thanks to the tv show ER (dr. carter) and my favorite rapper jay-z (sean carter). if carter was a girl, his name would have been hilarie. we never settled on a middle name.

mason was going to be avery kate if he was a girl. the final 3 boy names we brought with us to the hospital were mason, cole, and brady. i wanted cole, craig wanted brady and we both liked mason.

the night before we were going to have hadley, we were still trying to nail down names. if she was a boy, she would have been graham. for girls we were going back and forth between hadley and norah kate. i just thought hadley sounded better with the boys names, but we had a hard time picking a middle name. at first we wanted elis/zabeth, but disagreed on the spelling. i wanted the s and craig liked the z. i then mentioned isabel, which has always been a name that i have loved. craig agreed and we had our names set and just needed to see if we were going to have a boy or girl. this was the first time we didn't find out the gender ahead of time.

so now we need to figure out names we like for baby #4... in theory i like girly names, but i don't know if i would actual use one. amelia has always been a favorite, but i'm not sold. i think i should stick to surnames. and maybe, just maybe craig will let me use the name reid.... this is our last baby after all.

any name suggestions are welcomed.... really, i need all the help i can get.