How We Chose Our Second Baby’s Name

I can’t believe our little Scottie girl is a week old already! Keep reading for all the details behind how we chose her name, how the selection process went for us + the other names we considered using for our second daughter.

WHAT WE WANTED

We wanted a name that goes with Clay (I’m not even sure what that criteria is — but some names just sounded off when paired with it) was 1-2 syllables, easy to spell and could only be pronounced one way, which is the same criteria we used when choosing Clay’s name. I knew that if we went with a gender neutral first name, I preferred a more feminine middle name to go with it, like Clay Willa. We also wanted a name where she *hopefully* would be the only one in her class with that name or, at minimum, one of very few. We like unique names, but not anything unheard of.

HOW WE CHOSE SCOTTIE CALLA

It was so much easier for us to choose a name this time around! We used a giant whiteboard again to write down various name combinations and let them marinate. We were undecided for the longest time with Clay’s name, but this time we decided to go with Scottie early in my third trimester. Scottie is actually a name we had on our list when we named Clay. We revisited that same list during this pregnancy and we both loved Scottie. I feel it fits a baby as well as a teen and adult nicely with a sense of uniqueness to it (for a girl), but a name that people are still familiar with.

To test out the name a bit while I was pregnant, we watched The Descendants, where the daughter of George Clooney’s role is named Scottie. Watching it allowed us to hear the name being used a bunch of times to feel it out.

As for the middle name, we had some trouble choosing one because we had several that we liked equally. We actually didn’t end up finalizing our middle name choice until the day after she was born. Calla was a name we considered using for her first name, as a (Calla) lily is the birth flower for the month of May. Coincidently, we also just planted calla lilies outside of Scottie’s bedroom window the weekend before she was born. We also like that Calla is similar to Willa, which sort of matches and ties the two girls’ names together. I think it’s really sweet!

OTHER NAMES WE CONSIDERED

First names:

• Pia (Justin didn’t like it, but this was my first choice for a bit before I remembered Scottie)
• Calla (as mentioned, we ended up using it for her middle name instead)
• Lottie
• Violet (getting too popular)
• Luca (too close to Lucia, our dog)
• Luna (also pretty close to Lucia)
• Ivy
• Isla (getting too popular and I don’t love that it’s hard to spell/pronounce)
• Margo/Margot (sounds heavy to us and has too many R’s when paired with Armbruster)
• Tate

Middle names:

• Lane (one of our top choices)
• Gwen (also one of our top choices)
• Luna
• Violet
• Isla
• Maude
• June
• May
• Rowe
• Jade
• Gemma

NAME ANNOUNCEMENT

Like we did with Clay, we bought a custom pacifier clip with her name on it before she was born. Linked here!

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That’s the story behind how we chose Scottie’s name! We love it so much and we’re so happy with our choice. It “fits” her (as much as a name can fit a newborn baby) and feels so right for our family.