Where Did Your Children’s Names Come From?

So today begins the last of what has turned into over a week’s discussions about names. I wasn’t planning on writing so much about it, but I’ve had a few people ask and I wanted to get the explanations about our names done before beginning the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge tomorrow.

So last, but certainly not least in the explanations of where our names come from is the explanation of my children’s names.

My Children’s Real Name Stories

For their protection, I also use pseudonyms for them. 

In real life, I’m not certain of where their names come from. I actually thought my first son (aka Troy) would have my second son’s name (aka Matt). I think my ex decided to name the first one while I was still delirious from labor and delivery. It’s okay though. The second son got the name (The good thing about having so many boys is we pretty much got every name we’d ever really liked!) and the names they ended up with suits them both.

I have no idea of where the third son’s real name (aka George) came from, but it’s one of my favorites.

The fourth son’s name (Noah) is kind of a funny story. This was the only one of the five children we went into labor knowing the gender of so my husband and I went into the hospital with a list of about 7 names but no idea of which we’d choose.

During delivery the nurses were so wonderful and in their encouragement they wanted to cheer the baby out (That sounds strange now, but it was really sweet of them at the time! 🙂 ) When they asked the baby’s name, and we didn’t know they started giving us suggestions.

My husband’s name is Paul.

My brother’s name is Joe.

My neighbor’s second cousin’s father’s name is Fernando.

Well, that might be a stretch, but we really did make them come up with a lot of names before they chose one on our list.

Finally they came up with one – Daniel.

Son #4 would be Baby Daniel.

Perfect!

We Loved It!

Except when “Daniel” came out, the nurses looked at his fair skin and barely there, lightly colored hair, then, handing the baby over to us and looking at my husband, a real dark Italian, said,

Oh he doesn’t look like a Daniel at all. We thought he’d be dark like you.

We thought they were crazy – until we woke up the next morning and realized…they were right.

I remember them taking the Baby back to the nursery so I could shower and me going back to pick him up after. He was the only baby in the nursery with a generic “Baby Boy” tag. All the others had cute names attached to their name tags, and I could feel the judgment of others looking in the nursery window as I went in like I was selecting a melon, pointing and saying:

I’ll take that one.

Because I didn’t know what else to call him.

Baby Boy also had another name for a few hours. I’m not even sure what that name was, but I’ll update this when I remember.

What kind of motor doesn’t even remember her own kid’s name???

His older brothers thought it was really funny and kept calling and visiting and asking,

What’s the baby’s name now Mommy?

How do you tell your kids you don’t know his name?

LoL – It was really a great time!

Finally, a friend came in to visit. She told us she was probably never going to be able to have the children she always wanted, and so in honor of her, we should give him the name she would have chosen for her son and the male version of her name – Christopher.

And so we did.

And that name also stuck.

And fits him perfectly!

The fifth son’s name was kind of hard for me. It was a terrible time. His father had left four months before he was born, but I had still held out hope that he would end his affair and come home when he saw that the baby didn’t have the health problems we had feared due to my hyper emesis and when the shock of having the fifth son wore off.

I had it down to two names. I liked one (Kaleb). He liked the other. Three of the boys like the one he liked. Troy liked the one I liked.

In an effort to reach out yet again, I chose the name he liked.

I had hoped he’d be appreciative. He wasn’t. He honestly didn’t care at all.

I had wanted to name the baby three names, a first name and a hyphenated middle name (The middle name was chosen from the Bible and for a friend who had stepped in and cared for my boys and me so many times over the years, even before my ex officially left, times when he just wasn’t around). At the time, I  wasn’t strong enough emotionally to handle the people telling me that giving three names was a dumb idea, and I will wish that I had done so forever.

I still call him all three names.

And all three names suit him.

Single Mom Smiling Names

As far as on Single Mom Smiling, there’s not much to tell about the boys’ names.

 I told them some of what I was planning to write and that I thought they should disguise their identities a bit.

Kaleb is one of the three names I would have chosen for him so in a way, I think that of his real name.

One of my boys decided to keep his own name saying he would deal with any backlash (I love his strength and honored his request.)

One of my kids picked a friend’s name.

One of them picked a name he thought was, “much cooler than my own.” (Obviously I can’t even pick names right! 😉 )

And George? – Well, George was really into Harry Potter at the time He was especially into those mischievous  twins, Fred and George, and therefore, he picked George although there must have been times he wanted Fred because every once in a while I find an old post talking about Fred (who is actually George.)

Confused? You should be me and try to keep all their names straight!

And to make matters worse, George no longer likes the name George and wants me to go back and change everything.

Not happening buddy!

And there you have it. That’s the story of the boys’ names.

And the end of the name pieces; I’m ready to get on to another topic.

What did you name your children and where did their names come from?

God Bless…

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