Before she was Kristen....

Derek and I had the most difficult time naming Kristen.  We were hoping for a boy to name Hyrum Barton (Hyrum Smith was one of Derek's great-something-grandfathers and Barton is my father).  But the facts are we didn't get Hyrum Barton, we got another female child to name.  We had about 4 rounds of creating a list of names we liked, combining them, systematically eliminating them, then disagreeing on each other's favorite selection, scrapping those names, and starting over.  I was gunning for Joanie (my mother is Joan) and Derek was gunning for almost anything else (sorry, Mom).   Derek did leave it to me, however, at the final moment when that nameless girl was being brought to me to hold, to name her.  But really, if you know how much your signifant other dislikes a name, would you still use that name if you had the ultimate choice?  I knew he'd give me grief over it for the rest of the child's life (that's a long time) of I chose Joanie (I literally prayed for months that he'd suddenly wake up one morning and tell me he thought Joanie was a wonderful name for a girl.  (I don't care if any of my readers like it or not, it was all about changing Derek's mind.)).  That's when I shouted "Kristen" across the room to the nurses (I think I shouted due to post-labor shivers). 

The above is a simply complicated and wordy introduction to the list I unearthed last week and would like to record for memory's sake.

Our top, much debated names for our fourth child, third daughter, in alphabetical order:

Evelyn

Hallie

Joanie

Kayla

Kendra

Kristen

Lacy

Lillian

Lorraine

Macy

Olivia

Valerie