When Sean and I were coming up with names back in the summer of ’04, I knew I wanted something unique. We had never talked about names so it was a bit of a slap in the face to realize that the whole naming thing was kind of a big deal.

“What do you mean you like that name? Girls with *that* name are always bitches.”

“That’s a fat name.”

“Uh, no child of mine, thank you very much!”

It got kind of ugly, then, sitting in lawn chairs in the backyard, me with an uncarbonated beverage of some sort, Sean with a light beer (grrrr), we stumbled upon Briar. It was perfect, both of us loving it almost instantly.

Fast forward some 15 months and we arrived at Avery. We were getting better at this naming thing, both of us happy to have unique names that kept a healthy distance from trendy or just plain strange.

Imagine my surprise when a woman commented on my other blog, that she too had daughters named Avery and Briar. And she lived in New York State. And she had a blog. I am ashamed to say I was somewhat dismayed. I wanted that, wanted the distinction of having the only Briar and Avery. Childish? Maybe, but again, I had never considered how personal and significant naming one’s children would be.

Then the other day as I pounded out a Target Baby Registry in the interest of getting a free $20 gift card I stumbled upon another odd coincidence. There is a woman named Amanda living in Texas. We share the same last name and her husband is also a Sean, though he spells his name Shaun. Weird, right? How about this, I am due April 26th, she is due April 23rd. Ewwww.

I have to admit today I checked her registry and I am pleased to announce she is expecting a boy, but still, isn’t that just the slightest bit creepy?

Anything like this ever happened to you?