What’s in a name?

Good Lord! You’d think we were trying to name the next planet or country the way we’ve been carrying on about names. No it’s not really that dramatic but it was a constant thing. Every night we’d come home – what do you want to name him?

Katie - How about Aiden?
Eric - Aiden. Aiden. No, I don’t like Aiden.
Katie - Zachary?
Eric - I don’t like the –ary part.
Katie – we could just name him Zach. How’s Kevin?
Eric – Kevin? Kevin. These are my kids Kayla and Kevin.
Katie – This is my family Katie, Kayla, and Kevin. Ha ha ha
Eric – uh, no.
Katie - What about Eli? Evan? Ethan?
Eric – Oh, that’s cute. We could be Eric and Eli, Katie and Kayla. No.

Every night for the last few weeks.

We’ve known for almost 2 months that we were having a little boy. We bought a baby name book. I looked up names online. My friend gave me his spreadsheet with a list of names where we could each vote for each name. And to no avail. We’d talk about a name for a few minutes or a few days and then eventually rule it out. Of course there were names we ruled out immediately like Jim Bob :-). We didn’t want to name him after anyone or with the same name as any of our immediate family, friends, ex-boyfriends, or our friend’s kids – we didn’t want to steal anyone’s name. So that ruled out Jack, James, John, Jonathan, Robert, Raymond, Matthew, Seth, Dallas, Austin, Vance, Calvin, Jacob, Cooper, etc. But, on the other hand, we didn’t want something too unique – nothing that would stand out too much, or that he would be made fun of for having, or that the teachers would have a hard time pronouncing. So, no, Tito or Akbar or Hercules of course. I had friends texting me names, posting them on Facebook, emailing them to me. When grandma was in town this weekend she kept calling out different names. Everyone trying to help.

Why must it be so difficult???  I had Kayla's name picked out for a couple years and as soon as we knew we were having a girl we started calling her Kayla.  This time around it was uncomfortable calling him baby boy Colvin, or #2, or whatever for so long.  I really prefer being able to call him by name - makes it more real, because, you know, the growing belly isn't real enough.  :-)

So, now after umpteen conversations like the above I’m glad to say that we finally decided on a name. Am I going to tell you? Sorta. You have to figure it out. It’s the name of the city in which Eric went to school. And, yes, I know Eric went to school in a lot of different places but only one makes sense as a name. So – there you go. Good luck!