What's in a name?

32w 5d

I didn't have time to get everything ready for the shower recap last night, so today will be a double post day, with the recap this evening.

Nancy brought up a wonderful suggestion in the comments yesterday. I left a lot out about the baby's name! Here are some more interesting (or not-so-interesting, depends on who you ask) tidbits about BL's name:

How we chose it: I had started a list of names that I liked probably around 12 weeks into this. I kept it tucked into a baby names book and would add/cross off names as I felt necessary. Paul refused to think about baby names until we knew what the baby's gender was, because being an engineer, why on earth would you waste precious time thinking about girl names if you are having a boy when you could be designing something in a CAD program? Because it's fun damnit, that's why. Finally, around 20 weeks when we knew BL was of the boy variety, we began seriously talking about names. We never tried to strangle one another, or come up with bribes. We actually almost always agreed.

One day, I was flipping through a Pottery Barn Kids catalogue when I came across the no-longer-existing-online Mason bedding collection. I yelled out to Paul, "What about Mason?" and he agreed that it was a good name. And so it was added to the list. A couple days/weeks/can't remember later, we went to Crapplebee's for dinner and started discussing the names again. Once we had both realized that Mason was on the top of both of our lists we agreed that Mason it was.

His middle name was a toss up between two names for a while, but we ultimately decided on Theodore to pay tribute to Paul's grandfather who passed away semi-recently. This only seemed fair since if we ever have a girl she would automatically have the same middle name as me.

So there it is - the truth behind the name. Pottery Barn Kids.

What an online baby name advisor has to say about all this:

Mason (French: Stone worker; from French word maçon.) Theodore (Greek: Gift of God)

Powerful, a conqueror, devours the weak and rules the strong. The name Mason Theodore reflects money and power. It is a carnivore, a winner at all cost. -this makes dad happy.

Mason Theodore has the power and potential to achieve great things. Whatever the enterprise, it strives to be the best and most successful in its field. Extremely competitive and not afraid of challenges or challengers. A visionary, a realist, and a planner. Discipline and perseverance. Dynamic and efficient.

Rewards the faithful and hardworking employee, but has no tolerance for the incompetent. -just like dad!

Mason Theodore understands the balance between giving and taking, generosity and greed. When it loses that balance, it self-destructs.

Mason Theodore's most positive characteristics: Strength, perseverance, potential for greatness.

Mason Theodore's most negative characteristics: Financial ups and downs. Lacks compassion. Can be self-destructive. -this scares mom.

It is going to be quite interesting watching this little guy and seeing if he lives up to almost-startling predictions of an online baby name advisor.