And We Have a Baby Name

We thought it'd take us ages to decide on a name for this baby since we'd only chosen girl names, and were still not totally settled on that yet. Mostly, but not quite there. This baby must be meant to be because we both knew his name the minute we heard it. It's perfect.

Those who know me know that my children are typically given slightly unusual, though still very beautiful first names, and more common middle names. As a kid, there were always a million Amy's in my classes and I hated going by my first name followed by my last initial. Let me just tell you how much therapy it's going to take to get over being called Aimee P. for years and years. It didn't help that I was not a cute kid by any stretch of the imagination. AND, it was impossible to spell my first name. So, I've always hated oddly-spelled common first names.

The King had a different experience. His name was totally unusual, though not unheard of. It's a great name, very strong and regal sounding. But, no one ever remembered it or they thought it was weird. So, he hates wildly unusual first names.

When we married, we never could have known that we'd have very different goals in mind for our children's names. He wanted to be sure his kids had a common name that no one would forget and maybe even have some friends who shared the same name. I wanted to make sure my kids had names all their own, so they could be the unique and amazing little people they were meant to be.

So, we compromised. They have mostly unique first names (or at least less popular ones), and more common middle names. As they get older, they can have the option of falling back on their middle names. So far, it's kind of worked out.

Number One's name was completely unusual when we gave it to him. Now, it's on the top of the popular names list, and even girls are using it. (I hate that, but that's another post). The Beast won't ever let us call him by his middle or first name. We've always called him by his initials, and that's just how he likes it. He gets deeply offended if we call him by his given name. Silly kid. Pretty has a fairly common, but not often used, first name. She seems to like it. If she hates it later, that's okay. Her middle name is stunningly beautiful. It's my mother-in-law's name, and one of my favorite names ever. As for Snort, well...I think he knows his name. He turns when we say it. I don't know if he cares how it sounds. I think he's just glad for attention. (Hey! Attention can be hard to come by when you've got the siblings he has!)

This baby is following the same trend. He will have a great name. It's perfect for him, and matches those of his siblings well. His middle name is my favorite boy name ever, and is classic and beautiful. And, as luck would have it, his initials will be CTR. You Mormon people will think that's kinda' funny, if not a little cheesy. We didn't do it on purpose that way, but I think it means we really did Choose The Right name.

My favorite part about this baby's name is that we're keeping it a secret. We're not telling until he's here. Then, he can help introduce himself.