Slice of Life #10

How I Named my Children 

One of the hardest things before my children were born was giving them a name.  I think the decision was more complicated because of being a teacher.  As a teacher there are so many names that you just "can't" possibly name a child, even if you loved the name before.  If you're a teacher, you know what I mean.

My oldest child is Benjamin "Ben" Woodrow.  We considered names like Forrest, Bradley and Jeffrey, but finally decided on two Benjamin and Gavin.  Woodrow was always going to be the middle name because of my husband's grandfather.  We thought since we had narrowed it down to two names we would wait until our son was born to name him.  I thought he would magically enter the world and immediately look like a "Ben" or a "Gavin".  It didn't quite work that way.  After almost 27 hours of labor and a c-section, I was too tired to even consider which name our new baby looked more like.  The next day, every time a nurse would enter the room, they would ask, "pick a name yet?"  This added to the pressure to pick the "right name".   Day one came and went and I still couldn't decide.  At the end of day two, I was really starting to feel the pressure from everyone to just pick one and go with it.  I'm not really sure why I finally settled on Benjamin, but I did.  I can't imagine him being any other name now!

My daughter is Elizabeth "Betsy" Mary.  I knew from the get go that we only wanted one name picked when entering the hospital, so we could avoid what happened the first time.  I've always liked the name Sarah and would have been happy with Sarah Elizabeth, but I made the mistake of looking at the most popular names and it was higher on the list than Elizabeth, so I couldn't go with that.  I like the name Mary and would have been happy with a Mary Katharine or Mary Elizabeth, but my husband felt those both sounded too catholic.  I also wanted to use Mary because my mom is Susan Mary, my sister is Mary Beth and my mother in-law is Mari Lou.  We finally agreed on Elizabeth Mary.  Unfortunately, I have two cousins with girls named Elizabeth, so I felt I needed to come up with something a bit different to call her.  I've known two people in my life named "Betsy" and adored them both.  I also loved the ring that Ben and Betsy had together.  The name Betsy really fits my daughter's personality and I think it couldn't be more perfect for her!