What's In A Name?

I've always been one to have a list of baby names. I probably started this habit when I was about 12. Since then, my names have changed quite a bit (McKinley and Oakley used to top the list), but it's still something I've done. Since Kyle and I have gotten married I've brought up baby names numerous times, so by the time this little babe was conceived we had a small list of names we both liked.

I mentioned before that Kyle and I were both fairly certain it was a girl. We had our girl name picked out and ready to go. Then, we found out it was a boy, and had to "re-evaluate" our boys name, as it were, to make sure we loved it as much as we had loved our girl name.

While pregnant, we were pretty sure this was the name that we would end up going with, but had a few others in mind. We would tell people who asked that this is the name we would be going with, but decided that we would wait until we actually saw him to make sure. (However we did call him Abe quite a few times while pregnant. But mostly we just called him "Baby".) (Other names we considered were Blake, Noah, and Gabriel.)

As you now know, we named our babe

Harold Abraham Hanson

Yes, it's kind of a mouthful. But we like it.
And now, let me tell you about the names.

Harold is a family name on the Hanson side. Harold is Kyle's dad's, grandpa's, and great-grandpa's first name, although only the first Harold went by it. The other two go (or went) by their middle name. Even before Kyle and I were dating, he had told me of his desire to name his first son Harold after the Harolds in his family. This has always been the plan. And I thought it was a great one. My father-in-law and Kyle's grandpas were all great men, and I love that we named our son after them.

Abraham is a name I hadn't really considered until a few years ago, but then it really grew on me, particularly the nickname Abe. Kyle and I also really like Abraham Lincoln (ask Kyle how many books he's read about him sometime...) and so we thought it was a good fit. And, if I might say so, Abe Hanson sounds darn cute.

Kyle made a funny comment about our name while I was still pregnant, something about how much pressure our little one might be under since they are being named after 4 great men (5, if you also count the prophet Abraham). We kind of laughed at that.


So while it's kind of a long name, and he's going by his middle name, it just fits.
And we love it.