Tomorrow my wife and I will welcome our second child into the world. According to the doctor, it will be a boy. I sure hope that is the case, knowing that a little girl would not appreciate a blue nursery! This boy is special in that he will be one of only two men left in my family, going back several generations, who can carry on our last name. He is one of the last hopes we have for spreading or genes, passing on the Lett DNA, while keeping the name intact.
Most of my male cousins have all had girls, a fate that spared me this time. Most of these same cousins are also beyond childrearing age. Do not get me wrong, I would like a girl just fine and already have one, but I would hate to go down as the man who let the Lett name die. My wife is happy too as the pressure is off to have a boy. Who knows how many times we would have tried until we had him.
With all of this pressure now transferred to my son, he will be the one required to produce boys. My last task is that I have the pleasure of naming him. My wife named our daughter so I get to name the boy. How am I supposed to come up with a name by myself? I have to be careful not to pick a bad name; one that will get him picked on in school. I cannot select one that is too feminine, too old-fashioned or too hard to spell. I cannot choose a name that someone else in the family has or might use in the near future. This is going to be difficult.
I have come up with some basic guidelines for choosing my son’s name. My wife, daughter and I have names that begin with a hard-C sound so I would like for the boy to have one as well. That eliminates at least all but two letters from the alphabet, C and K.
I would also like to incorporate a genealogical, family name into the mix, perhaps someone in the family with historical value. I do not want to dig too far back in time, wanting to keep the focus on family names within the last five or six generations. The only person that comes to mind was my great, great, great-grandfather, Robert Baylor Pettis. He was the collector of customs for the City of Richmond, Virginia and served under several presidents. He was named for his uncle, Rev. Robert Baylor Semple, an influential member of the Baptist faith. I would therefore consider Baylor or Pettis as possible middle names.
A side note about Baylor and Pettis, all of the older people in our family hate these names. All of our young, hip friends love them!
Other family names that stand out are Headen, Jackson and Thomas. Headen comes from my wife’s grandfather and great-grandfather. Jackson was used by several of my wife’s ancestors. Thomas is my middle name, being named after my grandmother’s brother who died in an automobile accident. That Thomas was named after his uncle, who was named after his grandfather, who was named after his grandfather. My wife’s father and brother were also named Thomas. With this in mind, Thomas seems to be a good candidate.
I should mention that my mother-in-law wants the name to be Headen and she will probably call the kid Headen no matter what I name him.
As for family names that start with C or K, we do not have that many. The list would include, minus the ones that I would not give a chance; Clarke, Cole, Coleman, Creed, Carter and Kevin (but I do not want a junior). Cole or Coleman is not too bad. I like Creed but my wife would not go for that one. Carter was a frontrunner but my cousin named her baby Carter – last week!
One of the biggest tests for the name is it has to sound good when he is announced as the starting quarterback for the Washington Redskins…”and, starting at quarterback for your Washington Redskins, number 18, _______ Lett.” To let you know, I am totally serious about this test!
In looking around on the Internet for baby name sites, I found one that I liked – Connor. It meets all of my requirements and sounds good in the starting lineup for the Skins. Now I have to settle on a middle name. My main requirements are that it has to look good in a signature, the middle initial, and the initials cannot equal anything off-colored such as B. J., T. P. or anything that would lead to getting picked on such as L. D.
My first instinct would be to use Thomas, after myself, and Connor Thomas does not sound bad. Part of me feels that I would go for something more dramatic, Connor Jackson or Connor Pettis for example. If the state would let me, I might go with three names, Connor Thomas Jackson – that would be cool in my opinion. We will have to wait and see if they would allow that many names.
Through all of this rambling, I think I have settled on a name, Connor Thomas Lett. It sounds good for sporting events and it looks good on paper – Connor T. Lett or C. T. Lett. It might be a little soft for a tough guy but I think it will work. The funny thing is that I am not going to tell anyone the name until I write it on the birth certificate – not even my wife. He will be Baby Lett for as long as possible, just to drag out the suspense. I actually told my wife that Constantine was a leading contender so she is worried sick! A few more hours of suspense will not kill her.
Most of my male cousins have all had girls, a fate that spared me this time. Most of these same cousins are also beyond childrearing age. Do not get me wrong, I would like a girl just fine and already have one, but I would hate to go down as the man who let the Lett name die. My wife is happy too as the pressure is off to have a boy. Who knows how many times we would have tried until we had him.
With all of this pressure now transferred to my son, he will be the one required to produce boys. My last task is that I have the pleasure of naming him. My wife named our daughter so I get to name the boy. How am I supposed to come up with a name by myself? I have to be careful not to pick a bad name; one that will get him picked on in school. I cannot select one that is too feminine, too old-fashioned or too hard to spell. I cannot choose a name that someone else in the family has or might use in the near future. This is going to be difficult.
I have come up with some basic guidelines for choosing my son’s name. My wife, daughter and I have names that begin with a hard-C sound so I would like for the boy to have one as well. That eliminates at least all but two letters from the alphabet, C and K.
I would also like to incorporate a genealogical, family name into the mix, perhaps someone in the family with historical value. I do not want to dig too far back in time, wanting to keep the focus on family names within the last five or six generations. The only person that comes to mind was my great, great, great-grandfather, Robert Baylor Pettis. He was the collector of customs for the City of Richmond, Virginia and served under several presidents. He was named for his uncle, Rev. Robert Baylor Semple, an influential member of the Baptist faith. I would therefore consider Baylor or Pettis as possible middle names.
A side note about Baylor and Pettis, all of the older people in our family hate these names. All of our young, hip friends love them!
Other family names that stand out are Headen, Jackson and Thomas. Headen comes from my wife’s grandfather and great-grandfather. Jackson was used by several of my wife’s ancestors. Thomas is my middle name, being named after my grandmother’s brother who died in an automobile accident. That Thomas was named after his uncle, who was named after his grandfather, who was named after his grandfather. My wife’s father and brother were also named Thomas. With this in mind, Thomas seems to be a good candidate.
I should mention that my mother-in-law wants the name to be Headen and she will probably call the kid Headen no matter what I name him.
As for family names that start with C or K, we do not have that many. The list would include, minus the ones that I would not give a chance; Clarke, Cole, Coleman, Creed, Carter and Kevin (but I do not want a junior). Cole or Coleman is not too bad. I like Creed but my wife would not go for that one. Carter was a frontrunner but my cousin named her baby Carter – last week!
One of the biggest tests for the name is it has to sound good when he is announced as the starting quarterback for the Washington Redskins…”and, starting at quarterback for your Washington Redskins, number 18, _______ Lett.” To let you know, I am totally serious about this test!
In looking around on the Internet for baby name sites, I found one that I liked – Connor. It meets all of my requirements and sounds good in the starting lineup for the Skins. Now I have to settle on a middle name. My main requirements are that it has to look good in a signature, the middle initial, and the initials cannot equal anything off-colored such as B. J., T. P. or anything that would lead to getting picked on such as L. D.
My first instinct would be to use Thomas, after myself, and Connor Thomas does not sound bad. Part of me feels that I would go for something more dramatic, Connor Jackson or Connor Pettis for example. If the state would let me, I might go with three names, Connor Thomas Jackson – that would be cool in my opinion. We will have to wait and see if they would allow that many names.
Through all of this rambling, I think I have settled on a name, Connor Thomas Lett. It sounds good for sporting events and it looks good on paper – Connor T. Lett or C. T. Lett. It might be a little soft for a tough guy but I think it will work. The funny thing is that I am not going to tell anyone the name until I write it on the birth certificate – not even my wife. He will be Baby Lett for as long as possible, just to drag out the suspense. I actually told my wife that Constantine was a leading contender so she is worried sick! A few more hours of suspense will not kill her.
1 comment:
FYI - We went with the name Connor Thomas Lett.
Post a Comment