Boy Name Clicky Poll

Upper West Side

Have any of you divided up the naming rights by the sex of the baby?  Last night DH told me that he would relinquish an opinion on the girl names if I give him the boy names.  I don't see me being able to give up control, but am curious to know if it has worked out well for other couples. 

Our current frontrunner for a boy is Cal.  It goes very well with our last name.  A little explanation of the name: my father's name is Calvin and we would like to honor him.  I'm not a huge fan of Calvin as a first name, so we are considering naming a boy John Calvin.  Naming a boy John and calling him by the middle name is a tradition in DH's family.  His older brother's name is John William and goes by Will.  His grandfather's name was John Thomas and he went by Tom.  We felt that John Calvin (Cal) would honor both sides of the family.  Thoughts?

[Poll]

megemoney

No.  We have not given up rights to names based on the sex of the future baby.  We are using family names so it is pretty easy. 

CeCe8579

I like the family association with John Calvin and I like the NN Cal!

neverblushed

I like names that honor family members, so John Calvin aka Cal would get my vote.

However there are a few things to think about:

To a preschooler, "Cal" sounds like "Cow."  

He will have to be learn to understand that substitute teachers, bus drivers, etc. may accidentally call him John rather than Cal, if they are working from an official roll, etc.

MrsTBird

I actually like John Calvin, mostly for the family significance it has both you and your H. I would never give up rights to naming my child in hopes of naming the next LO. You never know whether or not you'll be able to have another LO, for various reasons. And IMO, you both made the baby, therefore you both get to name the baby!

plunderb

No, we have not divided up naming rights based on gender. As with all of our major parenting decisions, we aim for consensus.

John Calvin is fine, though I do agree w/ pp that I immediately associate it with John Calvin, father of Calvinism, which I would not count as a plus. But Cal is cute and it has good meaning for your family, so if the religious association doesn't bother you, go for it. I'd do Calvin John instead.

strawberrytree

I like John Calvin nn Cal.

I would never give up control like that. Maybe you could compromise- you agree on a short list of 3 names and he chooses from that list, or he gives you a short list of his favourites and you choose? 

ETA Just realised why John Calvin sounded so familiar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_calvin 

magpie1127

John Calvin nn Cal is a great compromise, and I love that it honors both of your families.

I wouldn't worry about the John Calvin association - he will only be known as Cal in school, so no one will really make the association. Besides, John Calvin will be his first and middle name, not his first and last name.

I definitely don't think you have to worry about Cal sounding like Cow. That's too paranoid for my taste.

I like John Calvin, and you can honor two traditions and it still sounds fresh!

capulet

Boys vastly outnumber girls in DH's family, so I would never have made that deal with DH before we had kids, even though it's worked out that we have one girl and one boy so far.  It's not that unusual to have all girls or all boys.

And I totally associate John Calvin with the theologian, probably because my background is in religious studies.

That said, I like the family tradition honoring both sides, and the first and middle name will be used together rarely enough that I don't think it will be an issue.

roxanarntson

I could definitely not give up full rights based on gender. We were able to divy up the names. He picked the first name for a boy (Quentin... based on his favorite director) and we'd use my maiden name for the middle name (Alexander). I picked the first name for a girl (Aurora), which I've loved forever, and he picked out the middle name (Simone... from his favorite blues singer, Nina Simone, after I absolutely vetoed Nina). I think it's good to have each aprent have a say in the name... you're both going to be using it a lot!

vanceandlori

My favorites on your list are Sullivan and Benjamin

TripMomma

I really like Calvin/Cal, but I am not a fan of going by the middle name....both of my nephews and one of my brothers do this and they always have to explain and introduce themselves with "Hi, my name is John Calvin, but I go by Calvin." Gets old.

KearaD

I think it's kind of weird to go by a MN, or a nickname of MN, and John Calvin definitely makes me think of the theologian (but I'd consider myself a Calvinist, so there are worse people to share a name with IMO). I think Calvin John would be best because you're still using John along with the family tradition, but not having the same name order as the theologian. 

Your other options are okay, but NMS.  

Upper West Side

Thanks for your feedback, everyone!  I didn't even know about John Calvin and Calvinism.  We'd most likely have him go by J. Calvin on formal documents and such - that's what DH's brother and grandfather do/did.  I really love Sullivan nn Sully, too, but I'd have to work really hard to convince hubby to go for that one.  Brewer is my mom's maiden name and Benjamin is really the only super traditional name that we can agree on (other than the John that would pretty much be ignored...).