October 31, 2011

What's in a Name?

My husband is a funny, good-natured, considerate man (among many other exemplary characteristics).  Unfortunately, though, he is also one of those people who just likes to make things difficult...know anyone like that?  I love him with all my heart, but I tell him all the time it must be exhausting to be him.  He literally takes hours to decide what he wants for dinner, drives around parking lots multiple times trying to find the right spot, and will argue technicalities on just about any point...seriously, I have threatened to call our local law school and enroll him in classes there just to give him a chance to get out all his debating tendencies!
So, I guess it should come as little surprise to me that a decision as important as our sons' names have been complicated and trying!  With Colton, I knew all along that I wanted his first name to start with a C.  In Judaism (well, at least in my corner of Judaism), it is tradition to name babies after someone has passed by starting their name with the same first letter.  My grandmother's name was Constance, hence the C!  In the months leading up to Colton's birth, Josh and I analyzed each and every boy C name in the book (we did immediately agree on a girl name, but obviously could not use it...go figure!).  He was hooked on Carter for awhile, but one day I was watching "The Real Housewives of Orange County" and ran into Jeanna Keough's son, Colton, and knew I was hooked.  In our musings, Josh had repeatedly thrown out the name Colt, so I figured this would be an easy sell.  Obviously, I should have known better...but about 3 months later, I finally got my husband to consent to Colton's name.  Although it took many more months to admit where I had found my inspiration for the name because if I had revealed that originally I can almost assure you Colton would not be named Colton!
Well, now it's crunch time to name our next child, who I affectionately have been referring to as Baby X!  True, he won't be born for about 9 more weeks, but I have some letters to order for his name display in his room, so we need to make a decision.  As usual, Josh and I are having a hard time agreeing.  The good news (and I knock on wood as I type this) is that since Colton's birth, we have not lost any more family members, so there is not an obvious choice of who to name this child after.  But I really want this child's name to have meaning and heritage like his brother's, so I have pretty much insisted that he be named after one of our remaining grandparents, Josh's grandmother or grandfather or my grandfather.  It took awhile to just get Josh to agree to this plan considering that now limits our name choices to ones that start with an R, L, or H, but he now seems to be on board (although you will see from the below list that he still insists on throwing some wild cards into the equation...I think just to push my buttons).   So, here's your chance to chime in:)  Below are the names that we have considered for Baby X.  To be honest, some have been given much more consideration than others, but feel free to vote for your favorite...
                             Tyler                                  Levi                                     Landon
                             Riley                                  Reece                                  Ryder
                             Rylan                                 Carter
And just in case it influences your decision, Baby X's middle name has been chosen...Shaine (not positive on that spelling) after my other grandmother, Shirley, who passed away about 15 years ago.
So, get voting friends!!!!  Seriously, I would love to hear what you think and maybe we can actually get this child named before he arrives:)

4 comments:

  1. I like Rylan and Carter the best, but all those names are pretty dang good IMO.

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  2. I love Levi! It was on our short list for a boy (but we're having a girl of course). Riley is becoming more popular as a girls' name lately (with differently spellings like Rylee and such), so take that into account.

    Also a fan of Landon!

    I also like Carter, but everyone will get your kids mixed up if their names are Carter and Colton. (I have a sister who is 15 months older than me...we're Carolyn and Catherine. Aunts, uncles, whomever gets us mixed up still.) Some people will get your kids mixed up no matter the names, though, but why lead them to it?

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