What's Your Name?

   I have a couple (dozen) mother pet-peeves. One of my favorites is when people ask my 10 month old son "What's your name?" When this happens, I never know what to do... The person is usually staring at him waiting as if he is really going to answer. Umm... no sorry my child doesn't know how to say his name yet... he is currently more interested in working on his blueberry mouth to floor ratio. Really though what do people expect to have happen when they ask this question to a baby? I get that they are probably assuming that I will answer on his behalf, but this interaction always makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. They're looking at him like he is supposed to answer, but clearly it isn't possible as his vocabulary is likened to that of zoo animals (he's a grunter). Usually I just join in the charade, looking at him, waiting for the supernatural occurrence of a 10 month old to speak his name. And guess what.... So far it hasn't happened and I just end up having to say it myself. So let's just do us both a favor; let's skip past the awkward encounter you're unknowingly putting me through and just ask me his name directly. It will save us both substantial amounts of sanity and time.

   

*Side note: I started this post Monday night and Tuesday it happened to me twice!

What's the story behind my little man's name, you ask? Well you're just in luck, because I am about to lay it on ya. 

Before we knew the sex of the baby, we didn't discuss names much. Mark had let it be known that if it was a boy he would be Mark Richard III (as Mark was a junior.) So we would only have to come up with names if we were having a girl. Because of that I didn't want to look up girl names knowing there was a 50/50 chance it would be a waste of time. We decided to wait to discuss names until after we knew what we were having.

Our first gender ultrasound left us believing we were having a girl (read about it here). So we started looking into girl names. We spent a couple hours looking through baby name websites and came up with a couple we agreed upon. All of our efforts were in vain because 4 weeks later, we found some things were missing in our first ultrasound. We had to ditch our girl names because I really didn't want my child having to explain to people why he was a boy but his name was Addison or Amelia. 

So back to square one.... oh wait... I forgot... Mark had decided the little Ham man was going to be Mark the III. Ekkk..... 

Honestly I HATED the idea... I was on a mission to find the most awesome name ever so he would change his mind. Well, weeks went by and it seemed that my attempts to convince Mark otherwise were futile. I came to an understanding that if passing on his name meant that much to him, it was only right for me to agree to it. 



Then.....        *cue God loving me*
when I was about 30 weeks pregnant, Mark had a change of heart. He realized that by making our baby a III, he was, by default, also giving him Mark's father's name. The problem with that was..well...ugh... if you only knew (and if you do know then you understand). I don't even want to write the things that Mark's father has said and done to him on here because it's not something we want to remember and honestly it's appalling. I believe that certain things happen for a reason, and although it's sad that they no longer have a relationship, I think it's safe to say that we are both happy that their falling out happened when it did because otherwise our baby boy would have had to get his name legally changed!

So....
Once Mark III was out of the question, we were pretty much back to square uno. We had one name that was our default; we both liked it, but we wanted to keep looking in case we found something we liked better. On a few occasions we spent hours looking up names, only to just get frustrated and quit because we couldn't agree on anything. I soooo desperately wanted him to like Jaxon. I totally fell in love with the name, but Mark hated it. He said Jaxon (Jackson) is a last name and all people would think of when they hear it is Michael Jackson. (Funny thing was I told many people about the name and not one person said anything about Michael! :p ) Eventually I gave up on that one because I could tell he wasn't having it. He liked Drew and Max. I didn't hate them, but they just were not what I envisioned my son to be. 

All throughout our research, Mark had really been into name origins and meanings. He wanted the name to be of English (from England) decent because his ancestors were English. Every name we thought of had to pass that test, so most of them were immediately nixed. 

Just weeks before I was due, we found a name we both liked: Drake. It was simple, yet strong (and English origin). The only thing I worried about was it being likened to the rapper. But I figured by the time he started school nobody would know who Drake was anymore anyway..lol... We weren't 100%, but we were happy with that one or our reserved back up if all else failed.

That was the last of our name discussions; I went into labor way before I had expected to so we never made a final decision before I ended up in the hospital. We didn't talk about it through my whole labor and delivery either. It wasn't until he was actually here in the real world that it hit us... we should probably decide on a name for our child. 

 Our baby boy was born at 2:14pm on Tuesday August 14th. So much was happening in the immediate postpartum hours that we still did not make a decision. Wednesday came around and I was ready to get out of the hospital. My doctor gave me the okay to leave after the 24 hour mark (I may or may not have had to beg him a little... I was miserable in the hospital.) Myles was still having some tests done (heart, hearing, etc.), so we took that time to finally make up our minds. We talked it over a lot and we both agreed on Drake. Mark called his mom to tell her our name decision and she informed him that is means dragon in Old English and is also associated with Dracula. Of course, Mark looked it up and sure enough, she was right. 

 If I am to be honest, at the time I was kind of mad about it. I was completely exhausted at this point since I hadn't slept in over 48 hours and all I wanted was to be able to go home. We had finally decided on a name and now Mark was not having it. I thought so what?... Who cares what it means as long as we like the name, right?.... Well after chilling out and taking a moment to actually think about it, I realized that I agreed with Mark. The meaning of a name is pretty powerful and I wanted our son to be surrounded by positivity in all aspects of his life. So.....

It was getting to the point now that the name on the birth certificate was the last thing we needed to do before we could leave. Changing our minds about Drake actually turned out to be a total blessing.. One of those "everything happens for a reason" moments. It was right then that we decided to go with what we really loved all along. Just to be sure Mark looked up meanings and origins (lol) one last time. 

Ever since I can remember, my dad has always told me that if I were to have been a boy, I was going to be named Miles. When I was younger, I hated it. I always thought "what a dumb name. I'm so glad I was a girl!" Over the years though, it began growing on me. When Mark decided against him being a III, I told Mark about the name and story behind it. We both liked it and it stayed on our reserve list. 

It's funny because looking back, it was totally meant to be. Everything happened to lead up to picking the ideal name for him and I couldn't be happier about it. When Mark looked up the name, he saw that the English version was spelled with a "y" and it means Merciful.. it truely was an act of God. 

The best part of the whole thing was telling my dad. All throughout my pregnancy, he kept bringing up naming him Miles. Even though we had it on our list, I never hinted to him that we liked it. I wanted him to be surprised if we decided to pick it and not disappointed if we didn't. I called him from the hospital before we were about to sign the papers and told him. It was one of the best feelings I have ever felt. He cried and it made me feel so good to know how much it meant to him. 

Oh and middle name was easy... Richard... Mark's middle name. So he still has apart of Mark's name and same initials! 

So there you have it:
 

Myles Richard

How did you decide on your baby name(s)? Are you happy with your choices?