How did you decide on your baby’s name?
With only 8 weeks {or 53 days} left until I pop baby number 2 out we can officially say we have settled on a name. Actually we settled on it months ago, but lately I’ve been running it around my mind & saying it making sure it fits & I can certainly say that I think it’s a winner. There haven’t been any other names that make me sit straight up & want to smack my Momma with glee.
I’m not ready to share his name yet but I will tell you his initials C.S.C.
And since we’re on the subject of names I thought I would share with you how my firstborn love of my life got his. A variation of this post was originally published almost THREE YEARS ago but I had like ZERO readers than so it’ll be fresh for all of you.
I was that girl that had a notebook {usually my church note taking notebook} that contained a list of names I would want to name my future kids. Let’s just be real here. There was a lot of times that church got very boring & it was either make a list of baby names or write my own name a gazillion different times in hopes of improving my handwriting.
I’ve never been drawn to the simpler names or more traditional names & have always taken it as a personal challenge to be as creative as I possibly could. The older I got the more interesting the names became. A few that I can remember are Finnegan, Ocean, Tulip, Ruby, Pilot, Jax, Roman, Capri, Calista, Casper, Jet, & January.
When I got pregnant with Phoenix & we started tossing names around the top 3 contenders were Milo, Finnegan, and Blaise. Milo was thrown of of the running because we started watching this creepy horror movie of the same name with a little boy in a yellow raincoat & jars of body parts. Not only did we turn it off we also crossed that name of the list right away. I really loved Blaise {pronounced Blaze} but Shawn thought it sounded like a rapper name. And Finnegan was one we finally agreed on until one day I looked down at my belly & realized the baby had named himself.
All across my stomach were stretch marks that at first resembled two hand marks like someone smacked the crap out of my stomach, but later on they started to resemble what I thought looked like the wings of a PHOENIX.
I remember it like it was yesterday staring outside of our grungy apartment window together when I showed Shawn. He immediately loved it because since we got pregnant he felt like his life was him rising from ashes & it felt completely meant to be & poetic for him. To me it just sounded like a super bad ass name.
His middle names we’re easier to come by. Alexander Troy. They are the names of his grandfather & Troy also happens to be the name of two of his uncles {unintentionally}. Shawn’s Dad passed away when he was 17 & when we found out we were having a boy I wanted to do something to honor both of our Dad’s. So we used his father’s middle name & my Dad’s first name {because Phoenix Alexander LYDELL just didn’t seem to flow}
Now that Phoenix is here he has completely lived up to his name. Even his hair is red & every time I watch him I can’t imagine him having any other name. Phoenix is just who he was meant to be. A firecracker shooting off fireworks like Katy Perry.
Now my fingers are crossed that the new baby lives up to what his name means…Peaceful Sea {Don’t try to Google it because it’s not a literal translation. Don’t worry I’ll explain in about 8 weeks} because that would be the perfect balance to a firecracker!
How did you decide on your baby’s name? Or do you have a great story on how your parents decided on your name? Let me know in conversation starter box for your chance to win a year’s worth of Cardstore.com cards!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cardstore. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Sweepstakes Rules.



