Diane has so far rejected two excellent ways that I have come up with for naming the baby.

First, I thought a lottery of sort would work well. The way this works is that everyone we know gets a chance to buy into the lottery (for a minimal sum) and then we draw names out of a hat (or randomly from the computer). The winner gets to name the baby.

Second, I thought that we could run an ad in the newspaper. The ad would read something like "The Ultimate Gift - Have a child named after you or a loved one." Then we would allow the highest bidder to name the baby.

Of course, both of these ideas are designed to be money makers, but Diane just can't seem to get into the spirit of things.

She believes that the baby should have a power name - for example, she is leaning toward Nicholas Alexander if it's a boy. She thinks that this name connotes power. I haven't bought into that concept (but I did play along and suggested Napoleon Alexander). However, she may be on to something with Nicholas - I kind of like Nicole for a girl (but maybe only as a middle name).

We have also thought about not naming the baby until a few months after birth. This way we have a chance to see what name would fit the baby. I don't know how the hospital and County Health department would feel about a blank where the name of the baby should be on the birth certificate. But then again, Kid Shirey has a nice ring to it.

Obviously, we are no where close to deciding upon a name.

[Editor's note: Be sure to check out the baby name stack included under our Christmas tree this issue!]