Girls Names

Julia announced this evening that she has memorized the top 10 girls' names from 2017.  After reciting them all for us, we weighed in on them.

ETHAN: That's a pretty terrible list of names.
ME: I like some of them.  I love Emily, and I like Sophia.
JULIA: I like Ava.
ME: I like Ava too.
ETHAN: Yeah, but HARPER?
ME: Yeah.  I know.  I feel guilty for not liking the name Harper, because I really *should* like it.  A harper is a person who plays a harp, and I love the sound of the harp.
MADELEINE: I feel like Harper is the name of a man with a bow and arrow who's shooting at a robin.  (Thoughtful silence) But the robin looks like a CARDINAL, for some reason.

Before long the kids were discussing their future children.

MADELEINE: So here are my DREAM kid names, but I feel like I can't have one of them because of Clara: I want to have May, then Lilac, then Clarabell.
ME: You're only having girls?
MADELEINE: Well, no...
JULIA: What's your boys' name?
MADELEINE: Chris.
ME: What are your favorite names, Julia?
JULIA: I don't know. I like a lot of names. I like: Emeryn, Lucy, Adara, Hialeah, Felicity, Grace.
ME: So you're both basically having all daughters?
JULIA: Well, my favorite boys' names are probably Luke...well, also Owen and Ollie, but there's already those in our family.  I used to really like the name Keith for some reason, but now I don't.


So, basically, my future grandchildren will either be named after family dogs, or I'll be introducing the world to my granddaughters, Hialeah and Lilac. 

However, given that I was convinced at various points of my childhood-through-adolescence that I would someday have daughters named any of the following: Elizabeth, Pamela, Julie, Cybil, Allison, Calandra, Faustine, Ellen, Harmony, October, Aubrey or Adara, I think it's safe to say that there's a lot of room for the girls to have a change of taste.  (Seriously.  Neither Julia nor Madeleine even made the short list back in my youth.  What was young Courtney's problem?!?)