Naming William Andrew

I recently had lunch with a friend who was expecting her second child, and she asked me how we came to name Liam.  Though I could recount the story quite well now, the more adorable things my children do, and the further removed I am from my moderate hospital meltdown that resulted from trying to name my son, the more I realized I should write this down while I still remember.

First off, I feel naming a boy was much more difficult than naming a girl.  There were far fewer names that I would consider for a boy.  With a girl, I feel you can be a bit more creative.  Even though we ended up with a super traditional name, that was by choice.  And though social norms may change in the next thirty years (or she may never get married), the name we gave Sarah may not even be her name for her entire life.  As attached as I was to Lynn, I gave that up to hold on to my maiden name.  So there is a feeling of permanence associated with naming a boy that gives me, the person who can't even decide where to go to dinner, pause. 

So these were my rules for naming my son.

1) The name could not me monosyllabic.  I just didn't like the way two monosyllabic names flowed when said together.  T.J. and I both like the name John, but I don't like the way "John Flynn" sounds together.
2) It couldn't end in an "in" sound.  One of the reasons I am not Jen Lynn Flynn is, well, say that out loud.  And it's amazing the number of boy names that end with an "in" sound.  Evan.  Nathan.  Kevin.  Ryan.  Brayden. etc. etc. etc.
3) It couldn't have negative associations with former students.  In case this blog is ever found by said former students, I won't mention the names that were ruled out, but a couple names that did not violate rule 1 or 2 were ruled out by rule 3.
4) The default name could not be a nickname.  I like the name Timothy, but you don't know many Timothy's in the real world, only Tim's.  Same for Alexander, Benjamin (though this also violates rule 2) and Nathanial's.  Not like I mind if my son went by a nickname (I feel most boys do) but I didn't want to have to go by a nickname
5) Like naming Sarah, it couldn't be too popular.  Though as the number of names has increased, the frequency of any particular popular name has decreased, so this is the least important rule.

If you're having a child at any point in the future, don't let them tell you you cannot leave the hospital without a name.  Not true, you may need to pay $50 later to register it,but it is possible.  After Liam was born, the nurse asked what his name was, and though we had had 30 weeks to try to think of a name, we still had no name.  I was pushing for Andrew in homage to my maiden name, and even told that to the nurse in the delivery room, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized there were still too many Andrews in my life to have another Andrew.  So Friday night came, and the registrar came, and we had no name.  And Saturday morning came, no name.  Saturday night, still baby boy.  Sarah came to visit and was calling him "baby baby" and I realized we should probably have a name lest Sarah call him "baby" for the rest of her life.  Sunday morning, no name.  Sunday afternoon an Irish nurse came in (for an unrelated reason) and T.J. asked her what some popular Irish names were.  Her response was Liam, William, and Seamus.  Well, I ruled out Seamus immediately.  We both liked Liam, but being a Jennifer born in 1979 I worried it was too trendy.  And then T.J. pointed out that Liam was a legitimate nickname for WilLIAM.  We kept the Andrew as a family name and though there were tears as a signed the paper (was it hormones?  Exhaustion?  And I'm still not 100% sure we made the right decision, but can you ever be sure about anything?) but thus was named Little Liam.

So the friend I had lunch with asked if I violated my own rule 4 by naming Liam a nickname.  I rationalized it by saying he doesn't "have" to be Liam.  He can be a Liam, or a Bill or William or Will.  I'm still not sure he knows his own name as daycare calls him William, I call him Liam, Sarah calls him "Eeum" and T.J. calls him Billy.  But he will learn his name one day.  Whatever he chooses to call himself, at least he can read this and realized we tried our best.