a recent economist article on differences in naming style based on gender is particularly relevant for us since we’re spending a bunch of time trying to come up with names. the purported reason as to why parents seem to be more inventive with girls names is amusing given some of our conversations while pouring over baby name books:

“One possibility is that in a society where family names are inherited patrilineally, parents feel constrained by tradition when it comes to choosing first names for their sons. As a result, boys often end up with the names of their ancestors. But when those same parents come to choose names for their daughters, they feel less constrained and more able to choose based on style and beauty.”

i’ve always been a big proponent of naming a boy after me, my father and my grandfather – i.e Eric C Snowdeal IV ( kris is much less in favor of this idea, but is willing to humor me ). you can’t get much more of a partilinieally defined name than that. but for girls names we’ve been leaning towards the inventive. so i guess in that sense, we’re really just quite normal.