My Kids' Names

My friend, Jenny, did a MeMe about her children's names today, and I decided to tag myself.

How I Came Up with My Kids' Names

Dylan Timothy: Ben actually really wanted to name Dylan "Xavier," but I was nervous about it. I didn't want kids to tease him at school. It took months to talk Ben out of Xavier. I first thought of the name Dylan when I was a few months pregnant with him. At that time, Catherine Zeta-Jones had her first child and named him Dylan, and I remember thinking that I liked the sound of that name. So I talked to Ben about it, and he was game! We called him Dylan for the rest of the pregnancy. Although sometimes I called him Hercules, because I fell like 10 times, hard, when I was pregnant with him. Poor kid. His middle name, Timothy, is NOT in honor of my missionary. People who knew me in high school always ask that. Yes, my missionary's name was Timothy. No, things obviously didn't work out between us. No, I didn't name Dylan after my missionary. Timothy is Ben's dad's name.

Sadie Cheri: There was a girl I grew up with named Sadie, but I never really thought of it at the time as a name I particularly wanted to use. I wanted to name my kids weird names like Freedom. True story. I'm glad I got over that phase. Anywho, when we were first married, we were in a married student ward, and my visiting teaching companion's daughter's name was Sadie. And I remember thinking, "I kind of like the sound of that name." So I held on to that name in my mind until we found out that our second was going to be a girl. It was between Sadie and Claire. I'm still "calling" Claire, so don't even think about it, sisters. It's mine. I still think I might want one more child (if we ever finish paying off Micah's birth), and if it is a girl, I'm pretty sure we'll go with Claire. Ever since we had Sadie, I'd say 90% of the people who learn that her name is Sadie say, "Ohhhh!!! My dog's name was Sadie!!" I guess we named our daughter a dog name. Who knew? Cheri is my mom's middle name, and also the name she goes by. I was worried about using a first and middle name both ending in the long /e/ sound (I taught English. Things like this bother me), but I really wanted to use my mom's name. And I thought it was better than, like, Marie Cheri, you know?

Micah H______: The H is really a word, not an initial, but it's my maiden name, and I try not to use last names on here. I wanted to name him Micah Richard, because Richard is my dad's name, but the initials would have been MRS, and Ben was dead-set against having his initials be "missus." I really don't think people would have noticed, but Ben and I fought about it for like nine months, and he never let it go. I reminded Ben that his initials are BS, and that he's still okay. He said, "Yeah, but BS is cool. Missus is not cool." Whatever. So I wanted to name our little man Micah Kent, because Kent is my dad's middle name, but my dad really hates his middle name. And Ben had a boss named Kent down in San Diego who didn't give Ben his W-2 for forever, and we were still kind of bitter about that. I thought briefly that we could use Richard for another child's middle name, and that we could use Gloria's (Ben's mom) middle name (Dale) or maiden name (C_____), but Ben didn't feel like going with either of those. So we decided to go with H_____ as the middle name, and make that be the middle name that is in honor of his grandpa, Richard.

So, if we have a fourth, and it's a girl, we're going with Claire Gloria. If it's a boy, Ben is just going to have to give me Dale or C_____ for a middle name. Or maybe we could do "Glory"??? Though that's kind of getting into the whole "Freedom" thing again... We can't have another kid and have my wonderful mother-in-law not be part of the name. It would just be mean. And it would drive me up the wall because I'm kind of OCD. If my other kids have their grandparents' names as middle names, my last one has to.

Look at me. I'm talking like I'm already pregnant. Trust me, I'm not. I'm thinking I'm going to wait until Micah is two, maybe, to start thinking about getting pregnant again. This three-year break between Micah and Sadie has been wonderful. Sadie was already potty-trained, and she doesn't need as much help anymore to do stuff. Plus, having Micah threw me for a loop. It really messed me up! My house has never been the same. It's constant pigstie. And I'm constantly tired! People warned me, but dang. I'm still reeling, and Micah is one!! Plus, my pregnancies are really hard, and I'm not in a big hurry to feel that way again... And, Micah is being really, really difficult lately. I'm wanting him to get a little older and less screamey before I can think about having a fourth child.

So anyways, tag yourself if you'd like!! I'd like to hear your stories.