Baby Names

We are having the hardest time on a girl name. If we like a name it typically will not last longer than a few days before one or both of us no longer like it. Here is a taste of what our list has looked like so far: (I'm only listing the girl names because we think we have a boy name. We are still looking at boy names but our focus is a girl name so they dominate our name conversations).

Things that we are looking for in a name.
     *Not made up or too weird sounding.
     *Normal spelling and it should be easy to pronounce based on the spelling.
     *No cousin names (Nate made this rule and I'm not fully on board but we are going with it)
     *Attempting to avoid the first letter K names because we don't want people to think we will do that with all of our kids.
     *No unisex names. As long as it does not appear as a unisex name on most baby name apps we can pick it.
     *We must like the nicknames that typically go with the name. We realize that we can't always avoid other people shortening our child's name so we might as well like the names that the name could be shortened to.
     *No last names as the first name. Apparently Kendrick is a common last name and it is not a trend we are going for.

Nate: Carina
Mel: Kalina
Nate has a cousin named Kalina and so my name got vetoed. To me Kalina is WAY prettier than Carina so his name got vetoed. We still bring these names up on a weekly basis because both of us are hoping the other one will change their mind... This battle has been going on for years and neither one of us has budged. :(

Names Nathan likes:
Nicole: I told him that the nicknames would very likely be Cole and Nicki and because he was not okay with that it is out.
Andrea: I don't like how it is too close to the boy version Andre.
Probably a bunch more that I just can't remember because I vetoed them too fast or didn't somewhat like them enough to remember them.

Names we both like:
Kyrene, Kyra, Kyrina: We liked all the variations of this name until I text it to my mom who was unsure how to pronounce it... they are out.
Sabrina: This one comes and goes for various reasons
Jamie: Loved it for about 2 days but shortly after learned it was unisex. Boo!
Audrey: Mean bullies could possibly use odd as part of a nickname.

Names Melanie likes:
Jesslynn, Katherine, Kara, Rebecca (except I like only Rebecca and no nicknames): Mostly Nate just doesn't like these names. Kara is to simple/short apparently and I thought that was a funny reason.

So ya this is just a taste of our baby name process. There are so many many more that we talk about but these are the names that get brought up despite our reasons for not liking them or being vetoed already. If any readers have baby name ideas we welcome all suggestions :)