One of my favorite parts about pregnancy is the hunt for the perfect baby name. Never exactly crazy about my own name (Carla, meh) I always dreamed of exotic and enchanting names for my kids.

I had two important criteria:

1. I wanted a different name but not too different.
2. My Spanish-only speaking family had to be able to pronounce it.

Right off the bat I started out with classic Latina names. Pilar, Ines, Xiomara, and Thalia were my top girl contenders, all of which my husband shot down with the quickness. Jeremy (that's the hubby)—well, he had some ideas of his own. His number one choice for a girl? Piper. Yup, you read that right, Piper. Can you imagine if I had allowed such a thing? Not because I think it's an awful name, but I could already hear my mami and abuelito butchering it! Peeper, Pie-pa, Peepa—yikes!

So you're probably wondering how our baby girl Dessa finally get her name. It's a funny story actually. One fateful day, Jeremy was heading to his "porcelain throne"and picked up a bunch of parenting mags on the way so that he could have something to read while attending to his business. All of a sudden he shouted out, "Hey, what do you think of Dessa?" I thought it was pretty and asked where he'd come up with it. Turns out there was an ad for "sexy" nursing lingerie from a company called Condessa in the back of the mag he was reading.

In a month, December 23rd to be exact, we'll be playing the name game again when we find out if we're have a girl or a boy in the Spring. We agree so quickly on boy names that I'm not sweating those but I am going to add one newbie to my list of girl names. Paloma is at the top of my list (thanks Salma!) but this time I'll have to worry about my hubby's family will destroy that name.

What are your favorite baby names? Or better yet, which ones do you absolutely hate?