Sorry if you're finding this out from a blog, but...

Michelle is pregnant. This isn't a formal announcement or anything; we've been telling everybody we could and trying to get the word out, but if this is the first you've heard of it and it somehow bothers you to find it out through such a pointless and ego-based medium as the weblog, please accept my apologies (even if they are offered in the same manner).

Our second child (and, we furtively hope, only our second child) is due in early March. Pretty much on Toby's second birthday, as a matter of fact. But Toby was two weeks late, so...there's math to be done if you care to do it. Don't feel obligated.

We've been talking about names. If Toby had been a girl his name would have been Sophia. Seems strange to think about now. But even before he was born, we knew we wouldn't use that name should the next one be female. Besides the fact that it's becoming a little too popular, it's kind of used already. Early on with little fetus Toby we were actually quite convinced that he was lacking in Y-chromosomes, and called him Sophie all the time. When we learned the sex through ultrasound (as we will with this one in a couple months), we just shook our heads a little, shrugged and said, "Oh. Sorry for calling you Sophie, Toby. Our bad." We still have an ultrasound printout on which the nurse (ultrasonic technician?) typed "GENDER!" with an exclamation point, like that, and drew an arrow. "Wow, pretty big gender you got there!"

In fact, we had a boy's and girl's name for Toby before he was even conceived. Pretty standard for firstborns, I would speculate, but this time it isn't quite like that. We have our girl's name (and no, I'm not telling you), but we haven't really hit on another boy's name we like yet. Our conversations of late have been along the lines of how the various incarnations of a given name with whom we've come into contact can often be said to share certain traits or qualities. To wit: Dans are popular. Steves are cool; they make great friends. Brads are intelligent and mercurial. Coreys are good-looking, ironic and, for some reason, short. Closer to home, the Joshs we've met aren't quite like me, but we seem to share a certain approachable independence and a healthy if slightly warped sense of humor. A daycare worker told Michelle last week that a child named Toby she watched liked to be around other people but played by himself, was always happy and very adept for his age. Bingo.

I'm not sure it works for girls. Janelles seem to be confident and competent, Alicias are good listeners, but you can get in trouble very quickly drawing generalizations about women, so here I cease. Anyway, we have our girl's name.

So we're thinking we might use this approach to pick our boy's name. Not necessarily naming him after anyone in particular, but looking for a name that has, in our experience, typically denoted the sort of person we'd like our son to be. And you're invited to broaden our experience with your own. What names have you found to yield consistent, pleasing results? We await your input.