What's In A Name?

If you've been following me for a while, you may remember how long it took me to decide on a baby name second time around and how many names we went through while narrowing it down

I've said before how much of a responsbility I find it to name a child - it's so easy to get swept up in names you feel are cute and to worry about what name "suits" the baby when he or she arrives, but it's so important to remember that you're not just naming a baby - you're naming a person.

A person who will one day be a 25 year old, a 46 year old, and hopefully even a 92 year old!

It's important to imagine that name being "wearable" at every age, and in every place that life may take them - you need to consider the impact their name may have on them when it comes to certain career choices in their future.

When I named my first son Tyne, I faced quite a lot of stick from people who were keen to throw their (unwanted, by the way) opinions around - but one person said something that has always stuck with me .

They said that the name Tyne will immediately draw up negative connotations because it is associated with the lower working class North of England, and that this may mean that people make assumptions about his family, upbringing and even his level of education and intelligence based on this.

I personally decided that was quite an extreme view and - as both myself and his Father ARE indeed from the North of England and do not personally feel that this is at all a negative thing - that an association with the North East would be unlikely to be something that held him back in life.

But still - I often remember that persons warning and it does worry me - I guess time will tell whether there is any truth in their prediction.

We chose Tyne's name because we wanted him to have a connection to his Dad's roots, since he doesn't have any family around - and because we knew the name was very unusual we chose to give him two very common middle names - William Henry (Both of his grandfathers names).

Our thinking was that he can always choose to use one of his more every-day middle names if he really dislikes his unusual first name.

Now that he's 2 years old, I feel that Tyne has grown in to his name completely and I cannot imagine him being called anything else - it suits him completely and, as there are so few others around, I feel that it really enables him to stamp his identity onto it.

Noah's name is a different story entirely - after choosing such a very uncommon name for Tyne, we were unsure of going with such a currently popular name for his brother (It's currently the number 1 most popular boys name in the UK...eeek!).

Infact, when I chose Tyne's name I was so determined to give him a unique name that I regularly checked the ONS database to find out exactly how many babies had been given the name in recent years - the year that Tyne was born there were less than 3 registered in the whole of the UK - so to go from that to choosing a name that over 3,500 children were given in the UK in 2013 (This years statistics are not out yet!) was quite a dramatic jump.

I considered choosing a less common name but Noah has always been my favourite boys name - only its popularity stopped me from choosing it for Tyne but to have two sons and neither of them have my favourite boys name seemed too silly - and so Noah was chosen.

To counterbalance the popularity of his first name, we chose a more unique middle name - again to provide a completely different option for him to use if he prefers - we chose the French name Rêve which means Dream.

I put a lot of thought into my sons names and although they may not be to everyones taste, I'm so happy with our choices and I hope that my beautiful boys - Tyne William Henry & Noah Rêve - love them as much as I do when they're older.

With a love of unique names, I of course also have a love of personalised baby items which can be customised to accommodate the more unusual names - and with this in mind, I want to introduce you to a new favourite brand of mine Papucci - which is where Noah's adorable outfit is from!

Just before Noah was born, we were so kindly gifted this beautiful personalised clothing set from Papucci .

The Kissy Kissy Luxury 4 Piece Gift Set contains a beautifyl babygro, vest, bib and hat - all matching, featuring a beautiful pricot trim and all embroidered with babies name and your choice of motif.

The set is available in other colour options but for our little boy blue we of course chose the baby blue set.

The quality of the clothing is second to none - made from the finest pima cotton each item is incredibly soft and washes beautifully.

The babygro has the scratch mitt sleeves which are so important for a new baby, and the whole ensemble is simply stunning worn together or makes for beautiful separates too.

Noah was supposed to come home from the hospital in the set but he was much smaller than we expected and so the 0-3 month outfit didn't fit him properly until this week - the above photo was taken at 2 weeks old and as you can see the babgro is much too big, but this demonstrates that you'll certainly get plenty of wear out of the 0-3 month size even with a larger baby!

Now, at 8 weeks old, the set fits perfectly and I may be biased but I think it looks just adorable on little Noah.

The embroidery detailing is perfect - you can choose your own motif from a list of approximately 30 choices including crowns, animals, sports and many others - we opted for the sailboat as I felt it complimented the nautical theme to Noah's name (the ark reference, of course!)

You can also choose the font and thread colour so the item is very much your own unique creation, making it such a wonderful choice for a new baby gift.

The Kissy Kissy Luxury Gift Set is available HERE priced at just £47.00 and available up to 9 months.