What's in a name?

Confession: It took me 3 days to write this and it's still jacked up with nonsense.  Sorry.

Christmas morning surprise for Bud

Oh man.  Nothing has consumed me more the past few months than choosing this guy’s name.  Bud and I really didn't start seriously talking about names until finding out that he was a boy in late September, but I don’t think a single day went by between September 19^th and the moment the ink was dry on the birth certificate that I didn't think about his name.  Not. One. Day.

Was I over-thinking it?  Yes.  But this is a massive decision and not one that I wanted to mess up.  It really didn't help that I came to this process with a very long list of “rules” that eliminated some favorites.  It drove Bud crazy.  Here’s a sampling. 

1.  We had already decided that his middle name would be Paul.  Bud, his dad, and his grandfather (and possibly his great-grandfather…Rick didn't know) all share the middle name Paul so that’s a no-brainer.  I like family traditions.

2.  We both prefer fairly traditional names that are easy to spell.

3.  I wanted a name that couldn't be shortened or have a natural nickname.  Most traditional guy names have a nickname (Benjamin=Ben, Timothy=Tim, William=Will, etc).  There is nothing wrong with these names, but neither of us have EVER gone by our actual Drivers License names and I have a slight complex about that. I thought that no one would come to our wedding because who the hell is Sarah Katherine and Andrew Paul.

This being said, I think nicknames are adorable.  Feel free to call John anything you want.  I've already been calling him Johnny, J-man, little John, Big Bad John, etc.  I just didn't want him to have to raise his hand on the first day of school every year and say, “Well, actually I go by _______.”

4.  It had to be two or more syllables to sound right with Paul. 

5.  It couldn't be a Top 25 Name.  Surprisingly, “John” was #27 in 2011 and has steadily lost popularity over the past few decades.  Being one of EIGHT Katies in my 8^th grade class was slightly confusing.  There were FOUR “Katie Cs”(Clark, Coughlin, Cuthbert, and Clements).  Because there were TWO “Katie Cl”  I literally wrote “Katie Cl(2)” on my papers.  Why didn't I just write out “Clark?”

6.  Needs to work for a kid and an adult.  'John Garro' sounds like a cute kid and a professional adult, right?  

So how’d we land on John and what was my hang up?  Bud started falling on love with John in November.  John is his maternal grandfather’s name.  I never had the chance to meet his granddad, but he sounded like an amazing man and someone that I’d be happy to have a son grow up to be like.

And while I like the name John a lot, I was not crazy about John Paul together (see rule 4 above).  Plus, John Paul sounded like a Pope to me.  At one point I agreed to John as the first name, but only if we didn't use Paul as the middle name.  Bud considered it, but in the end really wanted to keep that family tradition.  After many, many, many, many chats about this name Bud convinced me that no one will call him John Paul so it really doesn't matter what his middle name is as long as we liked the first name.  Side note: This has not been true.  I think a lot of people have assumed that the little guy has a double first name, but he does not…it’s just John. I know this will even out as people hear us call him John.

We are both madly in love with John and Bud was right....in the end it really doesn't matter what his name is.  Our biggest fear now, however, is that the much anticipated royal babe will be name John and the name will sky-rocket to the top of the charts again.  Come on Kate...do me a favor and just have a girl.