Choosing baby names wasn’t an easy task for me, except once, the second time, when somehow we just knew our boy’s name from the get-go.  The others, though, were tedious.  There was the pouring over the baby name books, each of us making our own first super-long list, then cutting our lists to our top picks before we shared them with each other.  

Without having to give a reason, we then crossed off any name from each others’ lists that didn’t sit well.  My husband, for example, wasn’t having anything to do with Savannah (“Because we’re from Georgia,” he asked-a bit derisively, if memory serves.  We’re not by the way.  From Georgia.) Crossed off.  I, on the other had, wasn’t going for Ann.  Without an “e” for goodness sakes!  We all have our issues, right?  Crossed off.

So here I am, all these years later, and no, no, no, not pregnant, but I found myself playing around over at Nymbler, which claims to be “your personal baby name assistant.”

I entered a few names I liked, like Anne and Grace and Kate, and here are the names it fed me:

Really?  I like Kate and you give me Johanna?  How are these alike?

I accidentally clicked again, and it fed me a new batch:

These are names I could live with.  Lily, in fact, was on my girl-name short list every time.  Not bad Nymbler.  Another good reason to give everyone (or everything) a second chance.