Many of you know that we are going to introduce yet another Ostenson boy into the world this September. So far so good except we seem to have hit a brick wall when it comes to naming this little one. Joe and I, being overly thoughtful, overly idealistic and overly symbolical, have run out of meaningful, faith promoting, character building, and otherwise cool names that also don’t sound awfully outlandish….at least we think. It doesn’t help that there are nine uncles and twelve male cousins in the immediate family plus the scores of Hulets and Strebels that populate the Salt Lake Valley. So we really feel like we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Just to give you a glimpse: we considered Melchizedek for a whole day and then it dawned on us that it might be a little embarrassing to not be able to spell your own name as a sixteen year old. Eros was a slightly better alternative but again we have to think about those teen years (“so guess who I’m named after baby …”) We tried on Gideon, Nimrod and Teancum thinking that it is possibly cool to name your son after a warrior, but then we decided not to ask for trouble, since we are likely to get it anyway. Nicholas is too jolly, Wolfgang is too brooding. Amadeus seems a little cumbersome and possibly guilt rendering. We had a whole list of names given to us by Joe’s brother that have ‘inappropriate connotations’ some that I never ever would have guessed…so we just avoided those entirely. Even though we do really like the “Avatar” cartoons I told Joe that we can’t name our son Aang, or Sokka. We were inspired by the Lost season finale and tried out Desmond for a while only to find out that it means “one from South Munster”. How lame is that?
So one day we were in the car, we had just finished a lively conversation with some members of Joe’s family who decided that I was being way to picky about this little boy’s name…possibly I am…anyway; we decided to ask the kids. ‘What do you think we should name the baby?’ I think Kipper said Melissa or something like…he still thinks we should have a girl. Liz was quiet. “How about Shadrack,” I said, I was on this kick that Shad sounds like a cooler Chad…don’t worry that one passed. “How about Gideon?” Joe said . Liz said, “I can’t even remember those names! Just call him Bob!”
So welcome to the family, Bob.
9 comments:
Haha. Similar thing happened to my brother. Their fourth child, he and his wife couldn't decide so they let the other three children choose a name. Bob. Yep. It stuck. My nephew is Baby Bob.
I have a friend at work whose son is named Teancum. He's a hefty baby and they call him Tank.
Good luck with names. It's such a hard yet fun part of it all. :)
Hey! I feel terrible that I haven't talked to you guys in forever! Congratulations on having your fourth. We are due with our third (a girl finally) in about a week. Longest week ever. We really should hang out, seeing as how we live in the same city still. Right? Or did I miss another memo?
Love you guys!
My kids all have an opinion. Tanner-Coriantamer (Cory for short), Maddie likes Liam, Max- Amlikiah, Seth-Billy for his real name then Bob cause Lizzy wants that and then Joe because of his dad (Billy Bob Joe). Maddie's teacher likes Italian names and since Joe went to Italy...Giovanni, Dante and Anton. Hope we were so helpful. ;D
I feel your pain concerning boys' names as well. As if our family isn't boy-heavy enough, Sam's fam has also taken about 20 of the best boy names out there.
Good luck in your venture!:-)
Can't wait to hear what you come up with!
What is it that makes boys' names so hard to pick? Before Peter was born we had been calling him Wendell (just for fun because we knew it was a name we would never give him - but it almost stuck). You could always go with Steve. I'm sure a certain old friend would appreciate it (we did end up naming our fish Willis). Or you could go with Nathan - that is meaningful, faith promoting, character building, etc. (we did think about Joseph for Peter, but we didn't know how we felt about having an Emma and a Joseph). Or you could go our route and use names of Presidents of the Church - turn a last name into a first name and suddenly it is cool and meaningful. How about Monson? Anyway, we miss you guys and hope you are doing well. Congratulations! (However, if you haven't become old already somehow, you automatically become old when you have four kids - that's a fact.)
LOL! I laughed all the way through. I still am sticking with someone naming a boy in our family Harper. It's cool, a family name, original and adorable all in one!!!
I was reading your blog to the fam tonight and they all wanted me to comment again on their suggestions...here they are! Calli LOOOVes Levi, Jeff still is partial to some names that we kicked around; Blade, Hunter,& Scout. Quentin said Moroni and Mack said just plain Mark! We just watched How to Train a Dragon and so you could name him Hiccup???Good Luck. We should have a contest.The winner gets a prize. Maybe to hold the baby, a lollipop, or dinner and a movie!
Holding OUR baby is defiantly the best prize of all...good idea Becca!
Names are so darned hard! Nothing like labeling an innocent child for LIFE! That said, I'd steer clear of Nimrod. :) I've always liked Matthias and Abel is our first pick if we have us a boy some day (but we can share). I like Gideon too. And I've got a billion Bobs (well, Roberts) in my family, so there's something to that. Really, the possibilities are endless.... good luck!
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