The Name Game

Naming our 3rd son proved to be a difficult task.

We went into the delivery with a name for a girl:

Lucy Kathryn.

This was easy.  

(1)We have never used our baby girl's name.

 (2) She was to be named after both of her grand mothers.

Baby boy was not so easy.

We had a list and discussed names many nights leading up to the big event.

Fast forward to June 13, 2012....

Doctor announces,

"It's a baby BOY!"

I was expecting to hear these words, but it was still a major surprise to actually hear the words.  

Immediately after birth the questions start.

"So what's his name?"

The next day the questions get a little more animated and look more like this.

"So what's his name???"

On day 3 the questions looked like this.

"SO WHAT IS HIS NAME????"

Here is a behind the scenes look at our process to name our little peanuts...

This is our original master list.  This list was written shortly after our engagement in 2005 during a church sermon.  The pastor was teaching out of Samuel according to the sermon notes.  I tried for Sam all 3 times, but was vetoed 3 times.  :) 

On March 10, 2008...

We hear the doctor announce,

"It's a BOY!"

Doctor asked "does he have a name?"

My response was "I'm not sure, but I believe it is Griffin James."

After a quick conversation our baby was named.

Here is our second list that was jotted down while we were in the hospital after baby boy #2 was born.

April 27, 2010...

Doctor announces,

"It's a BOY!"

Baby boy #2 was 3 days old before he had an official name.

Baby Boy went by the name "Andrew" for 1/2 a day.

Satch knew that I just was not feeling it.

After a heart to heart we agreed on the name Roman Wade.

Here was the list that we were working off of for baby #3.

June 13, 2012...

Doctor announces,

"It's a BOY!"

All of the names that we tossed around just didn't seem to fit our baby boy.

Criteria for naming our peanut:

• We didn't want to use a name that was on a popular list. Our first 2 names are somewhat unique and we wanted this name to feel the same.
• Our first 2 boys names ended in "N."  We did not initially intend to do this while naming Griffin and Roman, but we liked it and thought why mess up a good thing?  (Kento(n), Kevi(n), Steve(n), and Jaso(n)- the "N" went past our two boys and also included their Daddy, Uncle, and 2 first cousins)  All names end in "N" and all are boys.  Seeing a pattern here?!?  
• We forced ourselves to stay away from potential unisex names.  We loved the name Morgan and Cameron, but we know how cruel the world can be.  We didn't want to give kids/people ammunition to tease our boy for having a name that could also be used to call a girl.
• The name needed to carry our precious baby boy well through adulthood.  We needed a strong name that would serve him well from diapers through business meeting. (if that is the path that he so chooses of course)  
• We also wanted a name that would give us options to nick name off of.

We spent a couple of days hanging out with our little guy and getting to know him a little better.

We test drove a couple of names on him to see what we felt suited him best.

I hated going days without having a name to call my baby while we were initially bonding,

but I couldn't just settle on a name.  This was a decision that was much to important to settle on.  

Three days later the nursery nurse brought the baby in and we were talking to her.

We were talking about the names of our other children and names that we liked.

She observed that we liked names that ended in "N."

She offered to come back later and bring us a list to help with our process.

This is the list that she returned with.

As we looked at the list Cohen rose to the top.

I prayed hard before going to bed that when I woke up that God would give me peace and comfort in the name that we choose.

I woke up that morning and didn't feel led to the name.  

A few hours later I took a nap.

When I woke up I was totally at peace with the name Cohen.  

As you may recall Cohen was on our first list written in 2005.

We have tossed it around with each boy, but this time it seemed to be the perfect fit.

And that is how the name Cohen Jacob (CJ) was born...