I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I started naming my babies well before I ever had children. When I was a young girl, I kept a journal. This journal was filled with my personal thoughts about life, which boys I wanted to marry, and the names of my future children. (I also would write in detail about what my house would look like. There would be a water fountain in the living room! And a roller coaster in the backyard! Totally normal thoughts and dreams for an eleven-year-old girl!)
The names for my Future Daughter(s) were always changing. There were so many adorable names to choose from! Savannah Grace. Soriah Grace. Whitney Elaine. Mercedes.
But the name for my Future Son was always the same: Josiah Andrew. There were no other names. It was only that one. Oh, how I loved the name Josiah. I would write it over and over again in my book. Josiah Andrew. Josiah Andrew. Josiah Andrew.
I got pregnant with my first child at twenty-two years old. One thing we didn’t have to worry about was our child’s name. We agreed if we had a girl, her name would be Whitney Elaine. And if it was a boy? Josiah Andrew, of course.
The big day arrived and at 9:54 pm, my perfectly beautiful, wonderful son was born. Josiah Andrew. It had been a long labor. (I pushed for two hours. TWO! HOURS!) I didn’t have an epidural, but I did have plenty of pain medications. I was exhausted and in a druggy haze when my husband approached me about our son’s name.
“I think we should name him Andrew Josiah.” “No,” I replied. “I really think Andrew Josiah would be a better name.” “No! His name is Josiah Andrew!” “But people will call him Jo, or Joey. You know they will.” “NO! Josiah. We’re naming him Josiah.”
My husband didn’t give up. He kept going on and on about all of the nicknames people would call him and how awful that would be and, really, we should just switch it to Andrew Josiah. I was exhausted (and vulnerable) and so I finally caved and agreed to the name change.
We made it official–our son’s name was Andrew Josiah. I regretted my decision immediately. I cried, I cussed, I screamed, “How could you make me do such a thing?!” My son’s name was supposed to be Josiah. “You can still call him Josiah,” my husband said. “But it’s not the same! His name is Andrew. It was supposed to be Josiah!” Dramatic much?
I did call him Josiah for the first few days, but it never felt right. His name was Andrew. I had agreed to that name and I needed to embrace it. After a few weeks, it began to feel right and I was able to accept and embrace my son’s name.
Nineteen years later, it seems silly that I was upset with his name. It fits him so perfectly. If I could go back and do it all over again, his name would remain Andrew Josiah.
I’d love to hear the story of how you named your child/ren.
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When I was pregnant for the first time, we were having twins. We didn’t know until about 6 weeks before they were born that we were having two girls, so by that time we had four names picked out. I was almost sure that we were having a boy and a girl, and our names were Shelby Nicole for a girl, and Josiah Andrew for a boy (no, I’m not kidding!!!). We ended up pulling our 2nd girl’s name out of the air, really, just a name that we liked. When we were having our third, we still had Josiah Andrew as the boys name, but she was a girl too! So we never did get our Josiah Andrew, but we sure do love our girls that God gave us instead!!
We had chosen three names to pick from when our son was born. We thought we would look at him and then decide which name fit him best. One of the names used the middle names of both of my husband’s grandfathers (both of whom are deceased).
One day I was talking on the phone with my husband’s grandmother, and she was almost in tears telling me how honored she was that we were going to name the baby after her husband, and how happy that would make him. Yikes. So, I hung up the phone and told my husband that the baby had a name! There was no way that I break the heard of his 94 year old grandmother.
That is how we got our Cyrus David. And it really is perfect for him.
This is a great idea. I have too many kids to write down their name stories in the comment here. I’m going to do it up though. Great inspiration. ugh, my comment sounds like spam – sorry. I actually am excited to write up 5 posts about how my kids all got their names though.
Loved your story!. I never knew if I was having a boy or girl(booger hid it’s parts during sonogram). At four months I dreamed I was having a boy and named him Dylan Alexander it was so clear to me that I wrote it down. I came up with another name, Colton Shane just in case the baby didn’t look like a Dylan. Delivered my sweet BOY and did name him Dylan, it was meant to be.
My son’s name came to me in a wild pregnancy dream. In the dream, I kept having this feeling that someone was staring at me. I kept looking around for who it was, but then then I had a moment of “clarity” and I realized it was the baby inside me that was staring at me. In the dream I thought “Oh! It’s just Jasper staring at me!” I woke up and shared the dream with my husband and he said “Well, now we know what the baby’s name is if it’s a boy.” The name Jasper wasn’t popular 10 years ago and we got a lot of flack from some family members over the choice. I even doubted the choice for a few weeks after he was born but it suits him perfectly.
Oh now you’re REALLY going to make me cry!
I passed Pendleton on my way home and thought of you and your son. And of course, I teared up again.
Okay, I’m gonna go hug my son now…
My first daughter was 4wks early. We didn’t have a name that we liked before she was born, so we kind of came up with it in the hospital. For my second daughter, I saw her name in the name book before I was even pregnant. I liked it because it almost sounds like a feminine version of my husband’s name. For our youngest daughter, I told my husband a couple of names that I liked. He would never tell me what he did and did not like. I didn’t even know he picked one of the names I suggested until the baby shower cake arrived with her name on it.
P.S. I have a cousin named Josiah and his younger brother’s name is Andrew.
My eldest daughter is Colleen Ellen after her grandmothers. Daughter number two needed to have the same initials (I totally have a thing about matching). Naming her after Shaun Cassidy started as a joke that stuck. Big sister was allowed to pick out the middle name as long as it started with an E. She chose Erin and I loved it.So, Cassidy Erin. Baby number three was supposed to be another girl or so said the ultrasound tech. We chose Caitlin Eileen to stay with the theme. Well Caitlin came out a Connor – a name I have always loved – and left us scrambling for a middle name. With little time and inspiration, we went with dad’s middle name. With Connor Joseph we ruined the pattern,
Like you, I always knew and said I’d have a son named Will. From the time I was in junior high. When I had my son at age 37 his name was Will. My second son was named when I got him in Moldova when he was 28 months old. His name is Seva. I loved it and kept it. It’s a great name and he gets lots of compliments on it. My soon to be adopted daughter has a great name that we are keeping. Her name is Kseniya, but we are changing the spelling to Senia so that Americans will pronounce it right.
My daughter is named after my husbands pre-teen crush
I’ve met her and she’s a nice person and I liked the name so we went with it. I later found out that it was my great grandmothers name although everyone called her by a nickname.
My eldest son was also named by my husband and I like his names as well. I put my foot down with our third and chose both his names
We named my first son after my father-in-law, but call him by his middle name (Joseph) so as not to deal with “Big Bob”, “Little Bob”. My younger son has my father’s first name (Edmund), and my mother’s maiden name (Jackson) – we call him Jack.
The irony is my older son, while named for my husband’s father, looks exactly like my side of the family, and my younger son, named for MY side of the family, is the spitting image of my husband.
I went into the OR for my c-section w/ 2 names I really liked. The nurse asked me what I was naming the baby girl, and I told her I was torn b/n Name 1 and Carolyn. She said, “well, if it helps, ‘Sweet Caroline’ is on the radio right now.” (the OR really does play music just like on Teh TeeVee) It was like a sign for me and I liked that she has a story to go with her name.
We had our first son’s name picked out long before I became pregnant with him. He’s named after both our fathers and my step-dad (three names…David Richard Albert). The name we picked out for our second son initially was Steven, but there was an ad with a MONKEY on it called Steven during my pregnancy, and my friend (??) told me she’d always think of him as monkey-boy if we used that name. Nice huh? Anyway, I suggested “Mark” because I’ve always known nice guys with that name, so we ended up with Mark Andrew Vernon (the Andrew is for my husband and the Vernon is a family name on my side).
When my husband and I started dating, he rented out an entire theatre and had me watch The Princess Bride with him. After that, our inside joke was that whenever I asked him to do me a favor he would reply”…as you wish” just as the love interest in that movie would do. We ended up naming our son “Wesley” after Cary Elwes character from that movie. And it fits him perfectly!
I picked my first borns name from the books. Blake Riley. My daughter was named from the child my husband had lost some years ago. We just changed the spelling and then gave her a middle name from my family. Megan Elizabeth.
My hub and I agreed that if we had girls the middle name was from my side and boys from his side. We named our daughter after my grandmother. Then comes our son, my hub wants to name him after his grandfather, Joseph. I really dislike the name Joseph, but agree anyways. When our son was 4 my mother in law told me his grandfathers name was Miles. I actually like the name Miles and it really works with our sons first name. Why didn’t I check on this? WHY?