I think I dread naming our kids more than labor. While labor is painful and not something I look forward to - in the grand scheme of everything it is short and by now, somewhat predictable in the respect that I know it will hurt but then it will be over and we will have a sweet baby to make me forget all the throwing up and pain from the last 9 months. However, naming the kid is not short - it's for the rest of their life - no pressure there! I told Micah I wish naming a kid was like getting a Cabbage Patch Doll as a kid - the baby just came with a name. So much easier!
With our first baby, we had two boys names picked out that we both agreed on right away - weeks before we ever found out what we were having. Fortunate for us we found out we were indeed having a boy so I told Micah to pick between the two names we'd agreed on and that was it - super easy. We knew he'd be Brock Thomas within a day of finding out he was a boy. The second baby was almost as easy. We already had a boys name left over from round one and waited to find out what we were having before debating a girls name. Turns out we were expecting a girl, but it didn't take long to agree on Sophia and call her Sophie. The middle name took a little longer. We finally agreed on Ashlynn shortly before she was born but failed to discuss how to spell it until I was filling out the birth certificate and realized I didn't know how to spell my kid's name. I just sort of wrote letters till it looked right and that was that - Sophia Ashlynn was official.
Baby #3 was our hardest since we decided to not find out what we were having and we had to come up with a boy and girl name. Again, we had a boys name on retainer and spent the next 8 months debating girls names. We had it narrowed down to about 4 names and had our oldest child say each of them - whichever he said the cutest was going to be her name - real meaningful I know. About two weeks before I had the baby, Micah and I were in Washington D.C. and somehow again ended up on the topic of baby names. We had agreed on the name Eli Michael if it was a boy - Michael being my dad's first name. We had even told my father we'd be naming the baby after him if it was a boy. Well, Micah drops the bomb that it would really mean a lot to him to name the baby after him if it happened to be a boy. While I agreed, I made the point that we'd already told everyone, including the namesake, the name we'd chosen. He agreed to leave it as Eli Michael and nothing more was said about it. Two days before I went into labor I had a dream about the baby and woke up with a gut feeling we were having another boy - I knew what I had to do. At the risk of being disowned, though more likely I'd just never hear the end of it, I told my husband that we were changing the name. It was going to be Micah Elias and we'd call him Eli. Sure enough, two days labor Micah Elias was born and my father made sure to point out we'd gypped him a name.
For some reason, this time around we feel the need to be all intentional and choose either a name with significant meaning, such as a family name, or a biblical name. I have a very long list of boys names I've researched with their origins and meanings. We didn't think through any of this with the other kids. I never looked up what their names meant or Bible verses to go along with them. Heck, I found out years later when my grandmother asked me what my children's names meant that Brock means 'badger' - not exactly deep and meaningful or what I hope he grows up to be like! Brock named him Frickle Pants before we knew if it was a boy or girl and that has stuck. Micah and I did decide on a name for about a week then both decided we were undecided and back to square one.
So hear we are again, 5 months pregnant with our third boy and at a complete loss for a name. Until we do, he will just have to be content with Frickle Pants.
No comments:
Post a Comment