What's in a name? Ask a strugling parent to be...

When Emma was born on January 1st 2004 we still hadn't quite settled on a name. We were struggling to find a name of distinction though not unusual or comical. My wife and I have both loved our names for those reasons. The closer we got to birth, the more the name "Emma" crept into the picture until it was the favorite. And it seemed to fit the criteria, neiter of us had heard anyone named Emma in years! So it was decided. We loved the name and it seemed to be a perfect fit for our perfect daughter. In the hosptial two days later we passed a bulletin board listing the top five baby names of the previous year (2003). Wouldn't you know it but number three was "Emma". We both wanted to scream. Nine months of struggle and constrination had lead us to unwitingly choose the third most popular name of the year.

Well, the news is out today that "Emma" is even more popular than last year (In the year that saw more briths in Utah than any other.) Here are the top ten boys and girls names of 2004 as reported by babycenter.com:

Girls' Names 1. Emma 2. Madison 3. Emily 4. Kaitlyn 5. Hailey 6. Olivia 7. Isabella 8. Hannah 9. Sarah 10. Abigail

Boys' Names 1. Jacob 2. Aidan 3. Ethan 4. Ryan 5. Matthew 6. Michael 7. Tyler 8. Joshua 9. Nicholas 10. Connor