The Name Game

First, I’d like to note that I’ve typed this entire thing out in the “notes” app on my phone over the course of time. You can thank the long hours of breastfeeding for that :) this mama doesn’t have computer screen time like she used to! So the iPhone keypad shall suffice. 

Andrew and I have always played the “What about this name” game since before we were even married. 

It all began a few months before our wedding in July 2015. We decided to buy a puppy because, ya know, they’re cute and stuff. We could NOT agree on any names at all! All day long our texts would be one worded sentences... names. Who woulda thunk Andrew was so opinionated on something like this? I truly expected him to shrug his shoulders and not care.. haha! I wanted to name him Mowgi (from my life long love for The Jungle Book.. I’ve wanted to use that name since I was a little girl) and he was not having it. So we agreed on Moses.. how? I think we both just got tired. Sorry we half a’d your name, puppy dog. You’re still cute. 

But when it came to babies, we surprisingly were on the same page (for the MOST part y’all). We actually had Wilde’s name at the top of our list before we even knew I was pregnant. That was really comforting for me. We both landed on that name because we knew it was unique enough to set him apart, but nothing unnecessarily crazy or something he would be embarrassed of - or so we assume! We think he’s gonna be pretty rad and own it hard.  We actually found it by browsing our family history and stumbled across it on both sides, but as a last name of course. It immediately stood out and resonated with us, so I knew it was special the second Andrew agreed to save that name.  Of course the worries of it being so unconventional clouded our heads every now and then, but we really aren’t ones to give into what’s “acceptable” or “normal” in society. What’s considered normal, anyway? Who cares.

But the name sticking the entire nine months was tricky! A couple months pass by after finding out we were pregnant and I was browsing the ‘gram, as per usual, and came across a massive influencer I’d never seen before that had just given birth to her son. I’m sappy and super pregnant at the time and was so excited to tap on the darling newborn photo she had shared - The second I read his name, “Wilde” I was crushed. I’m sure my son isn’t the first baby named this, but names tend to trend hard these days like a wildfire in the wind and I flashed forward and imagined him growing up with 5 kids in his class with the same name like my husband Andrew did. I want him to feel special! Then immediately, I snapped myself out of it. What am I, in middle school? Something like this is so silly and shouldn’t bother me one bit.  And ya know what? I slapped the little unrealistic, emotional pregnant lady in my brain and realized... he IS special. He will forever be his own person, as long as Andrew and I are examples for him.

Now, his middle name... didn't come so easy. We really struggled to land on something that would kind of regulate his first name, but also be just as meaningful to us. After a few episodes of Andrew getting cold feet on the first name (don’t even get me started! I was so bummed every time he would do this), we never felt comfortable with a middle name. Literally, until the day he was born, it was never set in stone. I really wanted to pass down my dad’s name Rome (Jerome) or his middle name Edward, but it just didn’t stick. Maybe the next babe? But just not this one. Rockwell was always at the tip top of our list of names, but I really wanted to use it if we were to have a girl, I thought it was way too cool to be a middle name! But Andrew broke me down and alas, Wilde Rockwell was born. Literally. My dad calls him "Rocky", which I think is pretty cute. I know it's partly because in the hockey world, kids always go by a nickname and not their first (my brother played hockey his entire life, so he goes by CJ rather than his name Christian) and partly because I know he cannot wrap his head around the name Wilde, LOL. And I'm sure a lot of people can agree. I'm okay with that, things take time ;)

The moment he entered our lives, mine changed forever and everything I do is now for him. My efforts are to raise a good man that will do good for the world. And that’s why Wilde is my Wilde, no matter how many there might be in his class. I sure am smitten with this tiny version of Andrew! Happy two months, my love!