Who came up your child's name? Was it a collaborative effort or did you/your partner insist on the name?

With my first son, I made up long lists of names and my husband rejected every single one of them. Then we were watching A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen when I was about 6 months pregnant and we both thought the actor who played Dorian Gray looked like a mix between us (he`s Guatemalan, I`m Canadian). And it hit us both at the same time, Dorian was a great name. I chose his second name, Gabriel, after the archangel and because I liked the sound of it in Spanish with his first name (Gabrielle).

Our second son was easier. I suggested Dominic, Dante and Diego. My husband said no way to the first and last, which left us with Dante. My husband picked the second name this time around, after a singer he likes, Luka. And that was that. :D I love both our boys` names.

I would also like to add that our last name is VERY common (think Smith but thats not it)
so I wanted unique but not over the top names.

I found out after I was pregnant that my husband insisted that if the baby was a boy that he be named after his father. While I adored my father in law, his Turkish name was not what I had in mind for my child-my family would never be able to pronounce it, it was three syllables with no obvious nickname...it got ugly here to the point where i told my mother that i was going to write that the father was unknown and name the baby myself-after all i had been naming dolls, pets all my life and had thought there would be conversation...it was resolved by giving our son his grandfather's american nickname with his turkish name as a middle name. My advice-have this discussion before you are pregnant

David Leavell was the first name that I suggested when we learned I was preg. My husband quickly vetoed it b/c he felt that David was too common. 9 months go by and we had not come up with anything. In labor and delivery I told him I did not want my baby born w/o a name and I'd stop pushing. That was when he asked why I liked David Leavell. I told him that if I could name him after the two men I loved the most - my father's first name and my husband's middle name - how could he go wrong? After hearing my reasoning he loved the name. (Besides, there was no way I was going with Mortimer which was one of his suggestions - I think he was pulling my leg, but I'm not totally sure!)

We both worked on my first son's name - started with the baby books, made lists, worked our way down to a final three and then finally decided. His middle name is a family name. For our second son, it was harder since we'd already ruled out so many boy names the first time around. We were quite frustrated that we couldn't agree on anything so we took a break from the name discussion...and then it just came to me. Our oldest son chose his baby brother's middle name. My daughter's name was probably the least collaborative effort. After two boys, I was ready for a girl and already knew her name, having selected "girl" names for the previous two boys that we obviously did not end up needing.