As far as unusual celebrity baby names go, I like Blue Ivy. Sure, it sounds like a particularly potent strain of medicinal marijuana, but Beyoncé and Jay-Z settled on a name combo that’s unique, lyrical, and – the key for creative baby names – unusual without being weird.

But I wonder who did the naming, daddy or mommy? Beyoncé won’t return my calls or letters or emails or texts or telegrams, but the background on the name indicates that Jay-Z won the mythical Baby Naming Championship in their household. “Blue” is key to several of his “Blueprint” album titles, and “Ivy” is a play on the Roman numeral IV – apparently the number four is special for the couple, as his birthday is Dec. 4 and hers is Sept. 4, and Beyoncé’s latest album is “4.” So I’m giving Jay-Z the win here, slightly.

Back when I thought I wanted a boy,  my wife and I were headed toward controversy. I had a name picked out for my son, and that name was Roy. Roy, you see, is a very solid guy’s name. No one messes with Roy. If Roy puts his foot on the coffee table, you don’t mind because he looks cool doing it. Roy always has jumper cables, and probably knows how that thing works that you can’t figure out. 

My wife was horrified by the name Roy. Maybe it was too cowboy for her delicate New England sensibilities. I knew I wouldn’t win with Roy, so we reached a compromise – we named the baby-to-be Roy until we found out what the baby’s gender was. (“Roy H. Trott,” actually, with Hussein as the middle name.) Did I say “compromise”? I meant “my wife won the argument and tossed me a meaningless bone to shut me up.” And, of course, the Great Roy Debate officially ended the moment our sonogram technician pointed out a distinct lack of male genitals on the monitor.

Related: Do you let siblings choose baby names?
Moms' picks for best and worst celeb baby names

Bob Trott

Bob Trott and daughter NJ

Choosing a girl’s name got a lot easier after I saw a singer on television and said, “Hey, she’s a got a great name!” A little old-fashioned, quirky but not outrageously so, uncommon but not unheard-of. My wife loved it. Controversy did rear its head again, briefly, when I asked that we use my grandmother’s name for her middle name. My wife agreed, but I could tell by the look in her eyes that we’d talk about it again. Sure enough, a couple of days later my wife came up with another middle name (one that’s great and that fits perfectly and rhythmically between our daughter’s first and last names).

So: I picked the first name, my wife the second, and we both were very pleased – a textbook mutual decision, right? Right. Which is how it should be. (I don’t publish NJ’s name here or on my blog in hopes of safeguarding her privacy. Sure, I once published a photo of her with a cake that had her name on it, but in my defense, the photo was adorable.)

I asked a few friends, and based on this terribly small sample I’m going to step out on a limb and say that we Yanks are similar to the Brits in this poll – only a small percentage of couples fight over names, a small set of those parents fight about it A LOT, and in the end, dads get their way about 40 percent of the time.

One friend just missed having a son named “Gatlin Jack” when she had a girl instead. She signed off on it, so her husband had no choice but to accept the girl’s name, Tyler. Another couple asked their then-4-year-old what the names of her soon-to-debut twin sisters should be. The daughter came up with quite a list – if it had been left to her, her little sisters could have been named Cookoo and Caca.

I also heard horrible stories –one involved insistence that a family name be used, with an inheritance hanging in the balance. In another, a dying grandfather with an unfortunate name insisted it be passed down to his grandchild.

No real conflicts among the expecting couples themselves, though – lots of talk and negotiation, lists made and books consulted, and the mother-to-be usually got a little more benefit of the doubt. Which is fine, but dads can come up with some pretty cool names. I hope that one day, when they’re backstage at the Grammys, NJ – who by then will no doubt be a single-name star like Beyoncé – will brag to Blue Ivy about how her dad came up with her great first name.

"Like" TODAY Moms on Facebook, and follow us @TodayMoms