Originally published July 20, 2009
Many of you have asked for an update on the baby, and I can tell you Kara is still due in September and we are still going to be surprised about whether the baby is a boy or girl.
Helena has named the baby Grover, but you can bet that won’t be the name! No offense to the 19th century president and the blue muppet.
Keeping the gender a secret means we have to pick out two names. The choices have been made, but we’re not telling anybody — not even family.
By the way, I am plagiarizing some of this from my blog of January 18, 2007 when I wrote about the last time we played the baby name game. Like last time, we eliminated some names right off the bat, including Maxwell, White, Mad, Nut, Summer, Dog. Also, any names of people we dated before we got married got nixed.
We also eliminated Kara and Dennis. My dad’s name is Dennis and I found it confusing growing up. My name was supposed to be Paul, after my mother’s grandfather Paolo, but as soon I was born, my dad wanted his first-born child named after him. So, Paul became my middle name. I’m not a junior, which made it even more frustrating. I was always called Little Den, Young Den, Dennis Junior, Dennis Paul, etc.
To this day, some paperwork still gets mixed up. There’s nothing against naming your child after living people, but we’re not doing it. Our child will have his or her own name.
Kara and I also delved deep into our family trees for possible names. We’ve traced the House line back to 1475, so we have 16 generations of names to choose from, including Thomas, Philip, John, Samuel, Caleb, Job, Horatio, Melvin, and Arnold.
Melvin and Horatio don’t really work as baby names, for us, anyway! My mother’s father name was “Crescenzo,” a great name reflecting my Italian heritage, but it doesn’t go with House for a first name. Maybe a middle name, who knows.
Kara’s Sundlun heritage has traced back to Lithuania in the 1800s when the name was Zundelevitch. Among the names on that side that we could choose from include Moses, Morris, Isaac, Walter, and Bruce.
Her mother’s heritage is mostly Hungarian, and includes names like Stephen, Frances, Warner, Margaret, and Louis.
The most common name in our family tree is Phoebe….with three generations of Phoebes on my mother’s side. My grandmother , Phebe Cassidy Chully spelled her name without the “o,” the old Shakespearean way.
Some couples combine names and create a new one. If we combined our fathers’ names, we would have Brennis or Deuce. I don’t think so. So forth with our mothers’ names, we’d have Judalyn or Marilyth. Not.
Kara and I have our fair share of baby-name books and we consulted the Social Security Administration’s Web site for the most popular names. The most popular boy name right now is Jacob. For the girls, it’s Emma.
Here in Connecticut, the most popular name for boys is Michael, and for girls, Isabella.
We can tell you the names we have chosen do not appear in our family trees, they do not appear on the most popular lists and we didn’t make them up.
That’s all I’ll say … for now. I also wrote a blog in February of 2007 about Helena and how we came up with her name. Read that right here: https://dennishouse.wordpress.com/2007/02/27/helena-house-is-in-the-house/
Feel free to let me know your favorite names and your baby name stories.
UPDATE: Julian Crescenzo Stephen House was born on September 1, 2009
Categories: Family, Uncategorized
Dennis House blog 
How about Hart House or something like Hart Charles House or Hart Ellen House. All silly… Whatever the name it will be another beautiful baby and Hartfordite!!!
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How about for a girl Heidi Ann……no just joking i was picked on a lot in school with my name.
Elizabeth Marie House is cute….and you can shorten it to Lizzie.
Alexander Joseph House is nice for a boy too.
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Hi, How cute is Helena,my daughter had some good names for her twin brothers 10 years ago.My thought is, see the beautiful face this precious baby has then go from there. I like family names too. All of my 4 children are named from family. Best of luck to the three of you I am sure it will be the perfect name that you pick, after all the baby has there own personality. God Bless to you. Fondly Marge from Torrington.
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Hello again my youngest son had a little girl named Caralina . May be Caralina Marie. Have a great day.
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She was in his preschool class last year. just wanted to clarify. thanks.
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My advise, don’t stress over a name. Have some ideas and be some what prepared but don’t stress. Here’s why I say this. . . .my oldest Gianna Marie was supposed to be Caitlin Christine. . .my son Nicholas Henry was supposed to be Anthony Edwin. . . .ah yes and lastly my baby Sarah Mia (pronounced myyyahh) was supposed to be Angelina Milagro (Milagro meaning miracle) Ya see, sometimes your first thought doesn’t always stick! Well at least not for us! Part of the reason these children had no names until we were being discharged from the hospital is because the names we came up with didn’t fit once we met the baby. Any name you pick I’m sure will be fabulous and all of CT is definately looking forward to hearing it and the story behind it. As always we wish you, Kara, and Little Miss Helena well. God Bless
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I was really hoping for Deuce…lol.
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Malichi. Its the last book in the old testament of the bible. It is pronounced “Mal a kii” I think it is an awesome name for a girl. My children are now old enough to give me a grandchild. I am bribing them. First grand daughter named Malichi gets a thousand buck cash. No grand kids on the way as of yet. Best wishes to you and Kara
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Congratulations any name will do I am so happy for you. I know we looked through the baby name book and came up with 1 boy name and 1 girl name for our second child. The girl name was already used on our first child so we hoped that our 2nd child was a boy and volia it was. Good luck and congratulations. We are hoping for Sept 18th the birthday same as our oldest Brittany!
The Palermo’s
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Dominic for a boy or Kaitie for a girl??
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I could totally see you as a Paul. Anyway, my husband also has his father’s name and he is not a junior either. Doesn’t stop anyone from calling him Pete Jr. but it is confusing.
We had some names in mind before our children were born, but we waited to see them before deciding. We ended up with Amanda and Tyler.
Good luck and best wishes!!
Francine from Manchester
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My 5 year old is Jace. Great solid boy’s name I think.
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I like Adam. It’s an old name, simple.
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hey Dennis and kara,,,,,,, muchas felicidades el niño es muy bonito….in other words your baby is beautiful,,,,congratulations
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Joseph Dane House is cute.
Addison May House is also cute, in my own opinion.
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my daughter’s name is Lauralyn ( 1 word } and my son’s name is Anthony, i do like other names like Braidan, Wyatt, Ryder for boys, girls, Alexandria, Bree, Shea is a cute name.
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I think Sophia for a girl and away of avoiding “Sr., Jr. or III” Trey for a boy.
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I just realized, “Trey House” would be bad. Sorry!!
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It’s likewise a superb justification for getting your entire friends together also.
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Among the many annoying nights of the month is
Reconciliation Evening – that’s, the day the monthly finances gets compared to the month’s genuine bills.
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