What is in a name?

Watching tv tonight, I came across a show on Bravo called 9 by Design. The show is all about a couple who builds houses in Manhattan and has 7 kids! It is amazing to me that you would choose to live in such a large city and have so many kids! But what was even more interesting to me were the kids names: Wolfgang, Bellamy, Tallula, Breaker, Holleder, Five, Major. It has always interested me how people choose their children's names, especially when they are as unusual and unique as these.
When we were pregnant and found out that we were having a girl, I was set on using my grandmother's name, Elaine, as part of my daughter's name. I also had thought about names starting with A like my own name or R like my husband, Randy. When I realized that my husband's initials were REW I wanted to name my daughter so that her initials would be the same. Someone mentioned Reese and when paired with Elaina it sounded so pretty! We knew that we would name her Reese Elaina within a few weeks of the ultrasound.
When I was pregnant with my son we tossed around a few names to honor family members, but I have been determined to name my son Aidan since first hearing the name on "Sex and the City" almost 8 years ago. My father-in-laws name is Dan, so we did honor him by spelling it "Aidan" though there are multiple variations on the spelling. As far as the middle name, Randy wanted his nickname to be "AJ" and Jeffrey sounded nice. Since Aidan is a very popular name, I like that he could be called AJ at school if there is more than one in his class.
How did you choose your children's names? Did you have a name ready or did you have to see the baby to see if the name "fit"?