Prénoms.

Such a tricky issue. Naming. Even trickier when a lot of the people who will be pronouncing your baby's name speak one language and not the other, or the other and not the other (and even trickier still when your naming partner is Xavier - you'll see what I mean as I continue). We have gone through lists of names and decided on a few, only to overturn them (maybe). Most parents probably do this. Were this child a boy, he would be Louis (likely) - a family name and a good French one, obviously. Loo-eee. Easy pronunciation. She is girl though, and I have my heart set on one name and Xavier hums and haws about it and won't agree. Before we go to sleep at night he nudges alternatives in my direction: "What do you think of Lucie?" "Madeleine?"

Associations attached to names are often forceful. Especially with a guy like Xavier. One example:

Me: "Laurence - do you like it?"
Xavier: "C'est un prénom de grosses. Tu imagines? En France, en plus?"

(Translation: "It is a fat girl's name - can you imagine? And in France on top of it!"
Please note: If your name is Laurence, don't take offense. This is clearly an arbitrary and unstable analysis of a very nice name. Jocose nonetheless.)

Some of you know Marguerite's full name:
Marguerite Kelly Maya Hätsveda
(ask to see her passport if you're dubious)

Xavier had a formula for such a creation:
First name - a nice, traditional choice.
Second name - a favorite American TV show character.
Third name - a favorite cartoon character.
Fourth name - an IKEA product.
The breakdown: Marguerite (lovely), Kelly (90210), Maya (the bee), Hätsveda (wicker chair)
(Our child, were this system to be applied, will be even luckier because she will also have a double barreled last name).

To give you an idea (because I think Xavier will forgive me for giving this away) - Xavier's choices for the second, third and fourth names of the little baby soon to be born are: _________ Shannon Joanne Shruvsta (J J). That does not reveal the first name choice, but it does reveal just how weird our children will inevitably become. (For context, Joanne is a lady heroine in Capitaine Flam - French cartoon - and Shruvsta is an IKEA swivel chair).

In France, people often have two middle names. Xavier's full name, for example, is Xavier Nicolas Michel. Howbeit, in France, people do not often have IKEA product or extra cartoon character names. Xavier is proud of his naming conception because there will be two important events in his children's lives where their ridiculous names will be read aloud in front of many people in an official setting: 1. The day they take their Baccalauréat 2. The day they get married. I do hope the official at these events speaks some Nordic language so that pronunciation of the various products will not be a bother.

We have seriously considered Marie-Antoinette for the first name. And then Louis-Philippe for the first boy. Royal.