What's in a name?

When Shayla was born, she was the fifth in a line of girls, all with names that started with the same two letters. Sherri, Shana, Sharla, and Shelli. If I remember the story correctly, her entire family was hoping for a boy. Needless to say, when Shayla came out without the necessary boy parts, there was a bit of disappointment. This disappointment was apparent when Shayla's dad called his sister to tell her of the news, "Do you have another 'Sh' name for me?" "Oh Sh!t", came the reply.

I was born in Tucson, Arizona. Upon arrival I had an older brother, who had been born in Logan, Utah a year and a half earlier. When thinking of names my parents considered naming me Logan. Clearly, my older brother was the favorite. They loved him so much they wanted to name me after the city where he was born. I'm just glad he wasn't born in Panguitch, Koosharem, or West Valley City. It could have been much worse. Another name I'm told was considered was Andrew, or Andy. It was a front-runner on the name list, and could have very easily become my name, had a cousin not been born a couple months earlier than I, who had been given that same name. In the end, my parents settled on Robert. Much to my mother's dismay, it was shortened to Bob years later by friends in middle school.

Fast forward a couple decades plus a few years. Shayla and I are expecting our first child. A boy. Only one name was really ever considered. Shayla knew (she must be psychic) even before we were married that her first child would be a boy, and that his name would be Max. I didn't argue. I just went with it. I do remember though, after Max was born, looking at him and thinking, "Does this kid look like a Max?" I guess he did, 'cuz that's what we went with.

A couple years later Max was about to get a sister. Name ideas weren't so simple this time. We had a few boy names we liked, but no girl names. We'd toss a few around but nothing ever seemed to stick. We'd watch for names everywhere. In books or magazines, online, movie credits. Then one day, after watching a movie with an actress named Isla, I turned to Shayla and said, "How about the name Isla?" She didn't like it. I wrote it down on a short list of names anyway. A few days or maybe weeks later I found a piece of paper in the bathroom with the name "Isla Wells" scribbled on it a half-dozen times. Sometimes it was spelled with the "s", other times it was left out. Either way, Shayla had been testing out the name. She still didn't love it, but it was growing on her. It was a good thing too because by about this time, it was the only name on our list. As the months passed and our baby's due date crept closer, we became more certain that her name would be Isla. When she was born, there was no doubt in our minds about it.

Enter our third child. We took the old school route and didn't find out what we were having. We had a few names in mind early on. Josie for a girl (we were hoping she would eventually become an outlaw) or Simon for a boy. Shayla pushed fairly hard for Josie, but I was never really in love with it. As the months passed, we came up with other girl names like Cora, Naomi, and Hannah. We scoured family history records and found names like Keziah, Phoebe, and Roxey. Nothing really popped. As the deadline for needing a name grew closer, I mentioned Lucy. We both liked it, and eventually narrowed our list to two names, Cora and Lucy.

Boy names were a bit more difficult. I've always liked Simon. It was the name of my flour sack baby in middle school. A baby I wrapped in about five layers of duct tape so it wouldn't explode white flour powder everywhere if I dropped it. I don't think Shayla has ever really liked the name though. She doesn't hate it, but it's not a favorite. A few months into her pregnancy Shayla mentioned Wyatt. I didn't really like it, but went along with it anyway since we needed to start somewhere. As the months passed, a name or two would get consideration and would eventually be added to the list. Nigel. George. That's about it.

The days slowly passed but in the end, we were a bit caught by surprise as we had only a few days left before our child would be born. I typed up a spreadsheet with every name that had ever received brief mention during the previous nine months. I sorted through them and picked out first and middle name combinations that I liked. I then had Shayla do the same. When she was done, we compared our two lists of names to see if there were any matches. There were. Wyatt Dean was at the top of both our lists for a boy. In fact, it was the most common name and only the middle name would change. Wyatt Glen, Wyatt Lou, Wyatt Lee, Wyatt Earp. Even with the convincing majority vote for Wyatt, we still weren't convinced. Girl names were even more in doubt. Both Cora and Lucy played a prominent role in our lists of top names, but the uncertainty was still there.

Thursday morning, August 18. Shayla and I are driving toward the hospital at about 5:50 am. I turn to Shayla and say, "OK, we need to decide on a name." We decided right then that we both liked Wyatt Dean more than any others we had considered, and if our baby was a boy, we would go with that name. There was still a little uncertainty in our decision, but we were going to go with it. We really didn't have anything else.

For a girl, we settled on Lucy, but the middle name was still up in the air. Both Kay and Elizabeth were strong contenders and it just might have come down to drawing between the two from a hat.

About eleven hours later, we had a boy. Wyatt Dean. For the next few hours and even into the next day, any time either of us would say the name, or one of the nurses would call him by that name, Shayla and I would shoot each other a quick "Are you sure" type glance. It seemed a little weird and there was still some uncertainty there.

The more I think about it and the more I look at our child, the more comfortable I get with his name. I really like the sound of it. Wyatt Dean. It makes me want to run out and buy him some little cowboy boots.

Names are a funny thing. Shayla and I have commented with the births of each of our children that babies should just come out with a name tag. It would make it much easier. Then we could just read the tag and say, "Oh, hello, um, let's see what we have here. What does this say? Oh, hello Horatio." But then again, if that were the case, we might be stuck with a name like Horatio. Not that there's anything wrong with that name, especially if it's your name, but I like Wyatt better.

*All names mentioned in this blog post are copyrighted for use by Bob and Shayla (except Horatio, that one is up for grabs). We might use them in the future should we have any more children. Then again, we might not.