Name that Baby!

No, this is not an announcement. Rather, Kathryn over at Team Whitaker is hosting a baby name link up. I decided to join in the fun and post how we got our kids' names. Be warned- we are VERY boring when it comes to baby names and you're likely going to figure out a pattern after the first two!

Like most first born children, naming Joseph was fairly easy. We both like the name, which is important! We both had grandfathers named Joseph, called Joe. It is Adam's father's middle name and the name of my paternal uncle. My uncle took the name Andrew as his Confirmation name and, thus, middle name and went by Joseph Andrew. My father is named Andrew and my brother and brother-in-law have "Andrew" as a middle name. We like it, it sounds good together and, double bonus, our grandmothers love the name.

I never wanted Joseph to be called Joey which meant, of course, that my brother-in-law called him that as a toddler. Now he'll tell anyone that his name is Joe. He responds to Joseph or Joe and doesn't like Joey at all. (Thank you, God!) When I asked him why he started going by Joe, he said it was because it is easier to spell than Joseph! Ha! Stinker.

Random useless fact: He was almost named George. It was my birthday when I found out I was pregnant and Adam's other grandfather called me. When Adam asked if we wanted to name the baby George,I said, "No this baby is a Joseph." And he is!

You would think that Camille, the first girl, would be easy to name. No. Adam insisted she was a boy until the u/s showed otherwise. I knew I wanted her middle name to be Julia, the same middle name my grandmother had. (I didn't like the sound of her first name with his last name.)

I wanted to name her Charlotte Julia but Adam said no. After going around and around, I finally said, "Fine! Her middle name is Julia, find a first name that goes with it!" A few days later, he looked at me and said, "What about Cami, as a nickname for Camille?" I liked it and agreed... and two week later, he told me it was inspired by the name of a bad guy in a James Bond movie.

Ah, the George. George was always our second boy name. It's the name of Adam's maternal grandfather, a man I love. (I joked that if Grandpa were 50 years younger, I would marry him!) We actually asked his permission to name the baby George, because we knew some people don't like their names. He had no problem with it and so George was George.

His middle name, David, was a bit harder to come by. We tossed both David and Robert around but I thought George Robert sounded too much like a 1950's TV dad. I really wanted a Christmas-y middle name, as George was due Christmas Eve. I didn't like Nicholas or Gabriel though. I kept coming back to David, the name of Adam's uncle who died shortly before we were married.

One day, I had the realization that David IS a Christmas name- Jesus is from the House of David. BAM! Christmas name and a family name in one! Done!

Adam swore he would NOT be called Georgie Pordgie but all the NICU nurses called him that. He was Georgie PuddinPie from the beginning!

It's a good thing Cole is a boy, because if we had had a girl, she would still be unnamed. Actually, Cole was "supposed" to be a Henry, after my uncle Hank. However, he just didn't feel like a Henry. One day, I was chatting with a friend about some genealogy information Grandpa had sent us. In it, he told us that a relative on his mother's side had come from Ireland with a friend, who was a priest. The relative had a SuperLongIrish last name but he changed it to "Cole" the same name as the priest, so they could pass for brothers and enter America easily.

"You know what would be a great name?" my friend said. "Cole Robert!"

DONE.

We later found out that Grandpa was named for his grandfather, whose last name was Cole. In that small way, both little boys are named for Grandpa. (Least Joe be left out, he was born on their anniversary!) Robert is the name of several (many) men on my mother's side of the family. So, yes, we broke out "little old man" naming streak and gave our youngest son a more modern name, but it is still a traditional, family name like the rest of them.

More useless trivia: We thought about Robert Cole and calling him Robbie but he's not a Robbie! However, Colbert is pronounced "ColeBear" which is what we call him. (Get it? Col-bert? Cole Robert?)

And if we have any more?

I love the name Gianna, and the saint. I am insisting if we had a second daughter, she would be named Gianna. As a bonus, it keeps up with the naming pattern: JCGC. (JKJK sounds) I also want a Maximilian after Saint Maximilian Kolbe. However, given our penchant for producing kids with speech disorders, the speech therapists have made me promise not to do that! Henry is still on my list, after my uncle, and I like the name Anthony too. We shall see... and having Number Five is not even on my radar so I am not too worried!