On having a name like Dani California

Micah and I had a strange conversation about a week ago. It involved a middle name for our unborn Bean. I thought this issue had been decided months ago, if she's a girl she's Dani Marie and if he's a boy he's Liam Douglas.

I like names that mean something to me and both middle names were significant. Marie is both the middle name of my best friend and my recently departed grandmother. Douglas was Micah's grandfather's first name before he was adopted. End of discussion, or so I thought.

Here is the conversation that took place as we were leaving Tiffany on my 30th birthday:

Micah - Soooo, how set are you on Marie as a middle name?

Me - Pretty darn set, since we decided it before we were even pregnant. Why?

Micah - It's boring.

Me - Seriously? That's your reason?? (I believe at this point I had stopped in front of the Burberry store to stare at my lovely, clueless husband.)

Micah - (staring at me)

Me - Well, if you don't like Marie, then what is your suggestion?

And he looks at me, in all seriousness, and just says "Alexis."

Alexis?? Now, I have nothing against the name but my head was spinning with the thought of Alexis. Where did this name come from? What is my husband's reasoning for such a trendy name as Alexis?

I'm not a trendy name person. My son is Jason. That has not been in the top 100 for popular names in a good 20 years. We've never met another Jason his age and there are no kids in his class named Jason.

I like Dani because of the Red Hot Chili Peppers song, Dani California. My husband is a bass player and he owns three Flea basses. Flea is one of his major influences and I want to honor his musical abilities in the name of our daughter. And I don't see there being any other Dani's in her classroom when she starts school.

I bet I could walk into a school tomorrow morning, throw a paperwad and hit an Alexis.

In the interest of fairness, I gave my husband a week to come up with a meaningful name. He had nothing. So I made a list of 12 middle names and presented it to my husband on Friday night. He looked over the list and pondered while we ate dinner. And do you want to know what middle name he chose for our unborn daughter??

Marie.