We struggled to name Ivan Ivan. Why? I wanted a Croatian name (to use that adjective loosely) that sounds good in English (and is pronouncable). I also wanted a short name.
Most of my suggestions--names widely used in Croatia, Dalmatia, or just those I liked--were struck down by Andy for one reason or another.
One name I really liked was Igor. But Igor has ugly connotations here in the US because it was the name of the hunchback from Frankenstein. This was Andy's immediate reaction to the name. (Two names he vetoed were Bruno, as an Italian-American pizza shop worker, and Luka, because of the "my name is Lucca, I live on the second floor" Suzanne Vega song.)
Regarding Igor, I thought, "ha who will remember that old black-white movie? No one."
Well turns out, an animated movie about Igor who lives in the land of Malaria (a nice development touch there) is about to hit the theaters on September 19. Who knows how this Igor will fare.
Another reason why we had trouble picking the right name is because the number cool boy names is much smaller than girls names.
It's kind of like clothes. Women's fashions are so much more versatile, colorful and full of options and choice. Menswear, on the other hand, can be divided into basic "clothes" groups--shirts, T-shirts, suits, jackets and pants.
We finally settled on Ivan two days after he was born as we were signing hospital paperwork. We debated between Ivan and Sebastian--a name I liked but which completely broke all my name-stipulations. We settled on both as his first and middle name.
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