Week 21

It occurred to me last night that I had better hurry and get a week 21 picture and update posted before I get to week 22, so last night when the boys and I went into the barbershop to see Jeff before his pottery class, I had Jeff snap a pic of me. On the nights when Jeff has class, he doesn't get home until the boys are in bed (or almost in bed), so it's nice to get a bit of time together before his class, and the boys always love going into the shop.

So what's new this week? More of the same, I guess...names, names, and more names.

It is really funny (not funny exactly, maybe odd? strange?--perhaps in a year, it will be the true definition of "funny" and I'll start laughing about it) to me how difficult the process of picking this name is. I've never been in this situation before, stuck in a quandary about the name of my child. With Josiah, it was easy. Jeff had picked the name long before he met me, so our conversation went a little like this...
Jeff: Will you marry me?
Davene: Yes!
Jeff: Can we name our first son Josiah?
Davene: Sure!

Actually, it was probably more like...
Jeff: I like you. If you like me, let's get to know each other better.
Davene: OK!
Jeff: By the way, I'm planning on naming my first son Josiah so if that's not OK with you, now's the time to let me know that.
Davene: It's a great name! :)

With David, it was almost as easy. I had known "forever" that I liked that name and would love to use it for a son, and Jeff was in agreement. Piece of cake! (Although we did NOT discuss it quite as early in our relationship as we did "Josiah"...) :) But in both situations, we had chosen the name long before we knew it was a boy (or even before we knew I was pregnant), so as soon as we had the ultrasound, we knew his name, I could write it in his baby book, and I could start "calling" him that and thinking of him in terms of a known person. I loved that.

But now, wow, am I ever stumped! One thing is for sure, I'm getting quite good at eliminating names. Someone (usually Jeff or my parents as we sit around the dinner table together) will throw out a name, and I'm skilled at explaining exactly why we cannot use that name. It could be any number of reasons, familiar to all of you, I'm sure...I knew someone with that name that I didn't think highly of, it doesn't go with our last name, it's too common, it's too strange...but usually it's because I just don't LOVE it. For our son, it's simple really--it's got to be a name that I love! :)

It amuses me to go through this process with my parents and see/hear their responses to the various names we discuss. They're getting very good at keeping poker faces and saying things like, "Well, that's...unique!" Dad will often say, "Just make sure it's easy to pronounce and easy to spell," and I'll reply, "Yeah, you really followed that rule when you named ME!" (But I love my "unique" name and wouldn't change it for anything.) :) Mother will say, "Well, every set of parents get their turn at naming their children. We love the names we picked for our children, and now it's your turn to name him whatever you want." And Dad will say, "Whatever you name him, we'll call him that...and we'll love him just the same." Aw, thanks! And then he'll say, "What about the name John?"... :)

I'm considering writing a book, From Asher to Zachary, subtitled All the Really Nice, Truly Good Names for Boys that I Like but Don't Love or that Don't "Work," in my Humble Opinion, with Our Last Name. What do you think? Is that subtitle too long? A little wordy maybe?

All kidding aside, I am preparing a list for Jeff of my favorite boy name for each letter of the alphabet. The goal is for him to see that I'm really not THAT picky, and I'd be happy with any of the 26 names listed. Well, not exactly 26. I couldn't find any for "X" or for "I" or for "F" (probably because of our last name), so that knocks it down to 23. But I still haven't looked up names beginning with "O," "P," "R," "U," "V," or "W" yet, so that number could actually drop even lower. All it takes is one though, right? :)

Jeff is convinced that all the names I like are 2 syllables and end in "N." So he likes to suggest names like "Moleston" (an old family name) that fit the criteria. He's so helpful, don't you think? I think he's on to something though. As I glance over my list now, I see that out of the 18 names on the list (in case you're counting, I have 2 names for "J" so that's why the number is off), 12 of them end in "N"--10 of them are 2 syllables, 1 is 3 syllables, and 1 is 1 syllable. Why that would be the case that I prefer these names this time around is a mystery to me, but I think Jeff is right in his hypothesis. He's a smart guy.

Whenever I consider a name for this little boy, I have two tests that I use to see how they sound. Mentally I picture myself saying, "I need to go upstairs and feed ______ " (fill in the blank), and then I picture our son introducing himself to others when he's older, "Hi, my name is ________ Fisher." If a name "works" in both of those situations, it gets my vote; but if not, too bad, another one eliminated.

I think what's happening in this (seemingly interminable) delay of choosing a name is that I'm waiting for Jeff to find a name and tell me "I really like this name; what do you think of it?" And then I'll say, "Wow, I love it; let's name him that!" Or maybe, "Hmm, that's interesting; let me think about it," and then it will grow on me over time. So...um...no pressure, Jeff, but I'm kinda waiting on you, OK?

And I think that Jeff is probably waiting for God to tell him in a dream what we should name our son. So...um...no pressure, God, but we're kinda waiting on You, OK? :)

I got excited the other night because Jeff sent me this email with possible boy names...

Ardon
The name Ardon is a baby boy name. The name Ardon comes from the Hebrew origin. In Hebrew the meaning of the name Ardon is: Bronze.

Avniel
The name Avniel is a baby boy name. The name Avniel comes from the Hebrew origin. In Hebrew the meaning of the name Avniel is: God is my strength.

Gamaliel
The name Gamaliel is a baby boy name. The name Gamaliel comes from the Hebrew origin. In Hebrew the meaning of the name Gamaliel is: God's reward. Recompense of God. A biblical name adopted by 16th century Puritans. Famous bearers: American president Warren Gamaliel Harding.

Hezron
The name Hezron is a baby boy name. The name Hezron comes from the Hebrew origin. In Hebrew the meaning of the name Hezron is: Variant of Chetzron: From the walled town.

Raanan
The name Raanan is a baby boy name. The name Raanan comes from the Hebrew origin. In Hebrew The meaning o ... (not sure what happened here, but the text in the email ended abruptly!)

Ruben
The name Ruben is a baby boy name. The name Ruben comes from the Hebrew origin. In Hebrew the meaning of the name Ruben is: Behold a son.

Tapani
The name Tapani is a baby boy name. The name Tapani comes from the Hebrew origin. In Hebrew the meaning of the name Tapani is: Victorious.

Tobin
The name Tobin is a baby boy name. The name Tobin comes from the Hebrew origin. In Hebrew the meaning of the name Tobin is: Goodness of God.

Zephan
The name Zephan is a baby boy name. The name Zephan comes from the Hebrew origin. In Hebrew the meaning of the name Zephan is: Treasured by God.

I thought that because Jeff sent these to me, he REALLY liked them...so after I eliminated a few that I didn't care for or that American speakers would surely mess up the Hebrew pronunciation of (by the way, if we still lived in Israel, there are at least half a dozen boy names that I would love to use there...but they just don't work here in America...transporting names and pronunciations across languages and cultures is something that sometimes works...and sometimes just doesn't work), one popped out to me that I definitely liked and could easily live with. I thought, "Well, that's it. We have our name! Yippee!!!!!!!!" Only to find out the next morning that it wasn't so simple and Jeff didn't REALLY like those names as much as I thought he did...at least, he's not at the point of definitively choosing one yet.

So back to the drawing board we go. Or in my case, back to the two baby name books that I have...to look through the "O," "P," "R," "U," "V," and "W" sections (though I don't have great hopes for the "U" section)...to finish my list...to give to Jeff...so he can decide. :)