Looks like baby will be nameless........

[Kitt3n]

Yep, Arika would be pronounced Ahrika (so a soft ahh) - Annique is as you noted Pixie, like Monique

[nickle730]

I like Arienne as well. Arika is nice and I'd persevere with the post birth plan if you really like it!

I read 'Brunette' instead of 'Burnette' and I thought... but what if she's blonde? D'oh...

[Kitt3n]

I read 'Brunette' instead of 'Burnette' and I thought... but what if she's blonde? D'oh...

PMSL the first thing I thought was "Burn baby burn .... disco inferno!!!"

I'm liking the other spellings of Annique too - alas this is another name that DH is not fond of - we do not seem to care for the same names **bangs head**

[jackrose]

I went through something similar when DD2 was born, I had picked a boys name and girls name as soon as we got our BFP and was pretty keen on them but DH was not so sure. (It took him ages to warm to DD1's name too!) So for 9 months I kept bringing up the names and he just ignored me. I finally said that if he didn't discuss it with me, the baby will be named with the names I choose as I don't like the idea of a nameless baby for a few weeks till he decides, especially after we have had 9 months to talk about it! I really wanted to introduce our baby with a name when she was born as he had held off letting me with DD1 and I had to send out a text saying 'little girl' even though I knew what we would settle on. He just kept ignoring me...

So, DD2 was born and I turned to him as you suggested and said, "Are you still Ok about Natasha?" He looked at me dumbfounded and said, where did that name come from? Turns out he was well and truely ignoring me!! He asked for 24 hrs to think which I gracefully gave him and then he reluctantly agreed. Then, 24 hours later he came to me and said that he really didn't like the name. I was mortified as she had been a Natasha to me for 9 months, I loved the name and she was named after a friend! Plus, it was already out there publicly!

In the end I agreed to give him a week to come up with other names or to come round and we would discuss it later. As much as I could easily have said too bad buster you had your chance or too bad, I'm the one who pushed this baby out I put myself in his shoes and thought, what if he was insistent on a name I really didn't like. So as much as it pained me, I gave him his space, after all he has to live with the name and use it daily. And, in the end there was a debarcle around her name anyway with everybody completely confused as to what to call her!

Finally, we compromised and used Natasha on her birth certificate and came up with a nickname/variation of the name that we can use everday that he was happy with and I could deal with 'Sasha'. In the end I figure, Sasha can choose her own version of her name later in life, and I bet she demands to be called Natasha!!!

So the point of my long winded story is, you can certainly push for the name you want, the arguement of "I pushed the baby out" is one that has been used many times before I am sure but in my opinion a name is bigger than that and in the end belongs to the little baby. In the meantime, it is preferential for those involved to feel happy with it and that they have played a part in the process of naming... That said, what about Marcellus' suggestion? using Ara as the day to day 'familiar' name with Arika as the formal name? I think they both sound lovely.