Sunday, May 17, 2009

And his name is...

Okay, first I have to give you all the condensed version of the speech that I gave to my friends when I was 8 weeks pregnant regarding my decision to keep the baby: 

Opinion time is over. Aaron and I have thought long and hard about the choice that's right for us and for our child, and now that we have made a decision, I'd appreciate if I didn't get anymore input from you, the peanut gallery, about whose lives I'm ruining and what a bad choice I've made. It's done, we're sure, the end. If you'd like to say "congratulations," you're more than welcome, but any negative commentary is just uncalled for unless I ask you directly what you think.

Of course, I'm giving you that speech now for an vastly different reason: many people will not like my son's name. In fact, when I told an anonymous friend yesterday, she looked at me with sad eyes and said, "Oh, Nat, really? Why?! I liked blah and blah and blah so much better!" 

And that's exactly what I don't want to hear. Honestly, I'm having to adjust to his name myself. The thing about naming a baby is that there are two parents who each have an equal say. And Aaron has some really off-the-wall ideas for baby names, so our compromise isn't exactly something I would have chosen if I had gotten to name him by myself. But I think it fits him, and I can imagine saying it for the rest of my life without regret. 

So without further ado (brace yourself for disappointment) he will be named: Declan River.

We both love Declan - it's the anglicized spelling of Deaglan, who was an Irish saint in the 5th century. It's the 347th most popular name in the U.S., but it's #68 in Australia and #73 in Scotland. It's pronounced DECK-lyn, and yes, there are personalized CDs available for Declans, I checked. 

Aaron and I decided on his middle name last night, in a roundabout sort of way. I had made a list of what I thought were suitable middle names (Thomas, Patrick, Joseph, William...) but of course Aaron hates them, says they're plain and boring and refuses to name his son something boring. So he suggests... "Uriah." NO. "How about Declan Frost?" Huh? No. "Wolf?" Wha? No way. So we went through the baby name book together and picked out 5 possible middle names, one of which was River. Then we each secretly ranked them. River came out as his #1 and my #2, so River it was. We started second guessing ourselves, so we decided to sleep on it. 

In the morning, I asked him what he thought about Declan's middle name. He leaned down to my belly and said, "Kick if your name is Declan River." And the baby kicked. So it was settled. And now if he ever hates his name, we can just tell him that he picked it himself and he can't blame us. 

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