What to name a baby boys?

I’m realizing I’ve never posted about how we named our boys or about the day they were born so here’s the former and the latter will come as I have the time to write it all down!

Had both Jonathan and I had our way, our boys’ first names would’ve been Alexander and Henry instead of Jonah and Benjamin. I nixed Alexander (Jonathan’s favorite) because I au paired for a little boy with the same name and it already had too strong of a connotation. As for Henry (my favorite), our last name begins with H as well and the alliteration wasn’t working for us ( “Willy Wonka” sounds pretty ridiculous).

So a few weeks before their birth, we managed to agree on two middle names.

But agreeing on first names was a challenge. Jonathan was pulling for Malachi. I wanted Micah. Or William. We both liked Benjamin, Nathan, and Jonah. I particularly liked the sound of “Jonah Nathan” since it was a nod to Jonathan’s name. Running out of both names and time, we decided one would be called Benjamin.

Not completely decided on the second name – but leaning toward Jonah - we still referred to them as we had all along: the Big One and the Little One. Then, birth minus 10 days, I referred to the Big One as Benjamin. Jonathan acted as though I’d slapped him in the face: “I always thought of the Little One as Benjamin!”

Clearly, the Big One was Benjamin and the Little One was Jonah, but we agreed to wait to see them to make a final decision. (Then I could pull the old “I carried them months, then was hacked in half to remove them – the least you can do is let me choose the name” routine.)

At 34 weeks, the dudes were born. I spent that day barely knowing my own name, vomiting, and not yet capable of coherently communicating. The next morning, though, Jonathan was desperate to finalize the names. I slogged the sixty feet to the NICU to get my first real look. (I’d seen them right after birth, but was high as a kite.)

Sure enough, there was my 4 lb 7 oz Benjamin and laying several feet away was my 3 lb 7 oz Jonah. Jonathan agreed. Our family now included a Benjamin Henry and a Jonah Alexander!

Comments

[The Grandfather]

And now we know the "rest of the story". Behind avery cute kid is a great story.