The Name Game

The date is quickly approaching and it shows, big time. As any woman who has ever been pregnant knows there is a standard set of questions that you get asked whenever someone notices the abnormally protruding belly (thankfully very difficult to confuse with just being fat).
Question 1: When are you due?
Question 2: Do you know what it is?
Question 3: Have you picked a name for him (or her depending on response to question 2)?

I have absolutely NO problem with any of these questions. I am of course thrilled to be expecting the baby, thrilled that it's coming in only 7 weeks, and thrilled that it's a boy... but not so thrilled about needing to choose a name. When I was young I had a long list of names picked out, I believe written on the inside cover of some journal somewhere, but I have changed A LOT since my teenage years. The names I liked then are not the names I like now. Another issue with the names from being a teen is that for some reason I picked out mostly girl names, I can't remember a single boy name that I remember liking. This is silly since even in high school I felt pretty strongly that I was very likely to be raising a little army of boys.

Naming Jack was really a piece of cake. I adore my father. He was my hero growing up and still is. He makes people happy when he's around. He makes people laugh and not take life to seriously, but at the same time puts high priority on those things that really matter most. It was a no brainer that my first son would be named after him. I also love the name Jack. It is so simple and pure. It sounds very strong to me, and so I love it. Edwin was also easy. As Tyler's middle name and as a great honor to several men that have served their families, their country and their Heavenly Father faithfully it fit nicely with Jack and so it was: Jack Edwin Bolton. I love how it looks and how it sounds. I believe it suits my very strong willed but soft hearted little boy very nicely.

Now we have baby boy 2... If you ask we probably tell you an option we have discussed, however we agreed early in this pregnancy not to discuss names with others because I am very susceptible to the influence of other's opinions. We have a specific criteria when coming up with names. There are 3 things we are looking for:
It should sound pleasant and have a nice ring to it.
It should be easy to say and spell.
It should have meaning to us.

I hear lots of names that I like the sound of, but I have always loved that my name had meaning for my parents. It is a family name of a pioneer ancestor, it is the name of a righteous woman in the Bible, and for my dad I was named after Abigail Adams, a woman with great strength, courage and wisdom. It may seem trivial to have a name with meaning, but I have often felt the pressure of living up to my namesakes and desired to be a better woman. It's been a huge part of making me who I am now.

That said we have thought of several names, some of which totally fit our criteria... others that are just missing something. We have very much broken our rule about not discussing the name and I regret that a lot. So here it is, (finally my point) an explanation of the name you have heard for our new little boy. It is of course not for sure yet, but I will no longer apologize for the name, I like it very much, and it has great meaning to me!

Gunner: This is a name I have heard a few times but not frequently. I like that it is unique without being... weird (well I don't think it's weird). You should hear how cute Jack sounds when he says it, that is what sold Tyler on it :) The name's meaning is Warrior. My mother's first reaction to the name was that it sounded so militant... yep, that was actually sort of the idea. I like this for a few reasons, first it honors my sweet husbands faithful service to his country, second, have you noticed the number of boys that are being born lately?? I can't help but wonder if I am helping to raise an army. I am helping to raise an army of righteous young men to serve their Heavenly Father. Gunner will be a warrior of truth and righteousness.

Max: The middle name has been a bit tricky. We have thought about many and this is quite possibly not the one we will end up settling on, however it is a name I love. It is simple and short and who doesn't love a name with an X!? Tyler actually always wished he was named Max as a child, but that is definitely not our meaning for this one. I actually don't know the meaning or origin of Max, for me the meaning comes from the idea of having something that represents me in a name. How does Max represent me in any way? You may ask (that is if you are still reading this ridiculously long post). Well here comes the physics nerd in me... Max Planck is a famous physicist--a Nobel prize winning physicist. He is the founder of quantum theory and because of that may be an even more important physicist than, dare I say it, Einstein. I wrote a report about him once in college and was amazed at the beauty of is physics and theories (ok have I nerded everyone out of reading now?) and I like the name Max. Even more impressive to me was that he saw the simplicity and pureness of the natural laws of physics as evidence of an all powerful and all knowing God, which for some reason was uncommon among scientists of his time. At that point I thought, hey I should name a child Max... and now 5 years later I'm quite seriously considering it.

So there you have it, the possible name for baby boy 2: Gunner Max Bolton. Again, I like how it looks, the flow is a little off and that bugs me, it's easy to spell, and it has meaning to Tyler and me.

Thank you for reading the post if you survived the whole thing, even the especially physicsy nerdy parts. Now we will all just have to wait and see if this little one seems like a Gunner Max when he arrives.