The Naming & Coming Home

So precious!

Those of you who know Brian and me also know that we have a terrible time naming our children.  We've never settled on a name before seeing the baby.  We're both a little indecisive too, which doesn't help matters.  Even worse, Brian leaves the final say up to me which always leaves me wondering if he really likes the name we finally settle on or if he's just being nice (I think he really likes the names).  Ethan's name came along not too long after he was born.  It was on our short list and we both really liked the name.  I had only known one Ethan in my life, but come to find out it's extremely popular these days and now I know all sorts of Ethans about his age.  Tanner was a name that we both liked as well and it didn't take too long to settle on his name.  Bradon was a little more challenging.  When Ethan was born my grandma mentioned that she really liked the name Bradon and Brian and I were both surprised since the name was also on our short list, but we passed it up two times.  My grandma passed away just after I found out we were expecting Bradon so the name moved up on my list.  When he was born, however, I just didn't know if he looked like a Bradon to me.  In fact, for the first couple of months I wondered if we'd made the right choice.  Now I can't imagine him as anything other than a Bradon, and I think it was just that I was trying to get to know him with a little self-doubt mixed in (doubting myself is something I am really good at).

Naming this little baby was REALLY hard for us.  In fact, we were packed and ready to go home and we still hadn't decided on a name.  The birth certificate paper was all filled out and all that was lacking was a name.  All day Saturday we worked through our list and managed to narrow it down to about five names.  We liked Andrew, Anders, Spencer, Zachary, Ian and Joshua.  We cut Ian because we decided it was too close to Ethan.  By Saturday night we'd decided it was between Andrew and Anders.  They're basically the same name (they're usually listed together), but Anders is decidedly Scandinavian.  We decided we'd sleep on it.

Sunday morning we called the boys to get their opinion.  Ethan was disappointed that Jimmer wasn't a contender.  I asked him which name he liked better and he quickly said Andrew because "Anders sounds made-up."  Tanner also voted for Andrew.  Great.  I was leaning towards Anders and the boys were swaying me the other way.  I was worried that people wouldn't "get" the name Anders.  I didn't want him to be harassed for the rest of his life.  What to do?  Time was running out.

A lady came to our hospital room to take pictures of the baby.  She wanted to know the name so she could set up the website.  Finally I wrote down Anders on the paperwork.  That was it.  I showed it to Brian and he gave his approval.  His brothers would be disappointed, but I just think he is an Anders.

Anders Joshua

Ready to go home!

All buckled in and ready to roll.

Our boys had trouble remembering his name for the first few days.  It was a little tricky for them.  Here's an easy way to remember it.  The last name Andersen or Anderson is very common.  It is a patronymic name meaning son of Anders.  In Danish the letter d would be almost silent, but we're pronouncing it to make it easy on everyone.  I hope that our little Anders grows up to like his name.

It was so nice to come home from the hospital and be surrounded by all our boys again.  Tiring, but wonderful.  I missed them and it's nice to be together as a family of six.