Naming the second Little Man

There's a lot of bogus baby name research out there. Steven Levitt even says in that clip that the name has no effect on the life on the child. Ask Harry Butts what he thinks about that.

Levitt and Stephen Dubner, the authors of Freakonomics, are two of the three smartest people in America. The third is Blake Shelton and I don't think anyone can argue with the wisdom of marrying Miranda Lambert.

I'll agree that you can name the kid whatever you want, but please spell it in a recognizable and un-punctuated manner. Kelsey? Great. Kelsie? Fine. Kel-C? I just vomited in my mouth a little. Don't even get me started on La-a.

That's Ladasha, by the way.

Spelling a name in a normal fashion doesn't guarantee it will always work out however. I heard the story once of a young man named Jonathan. 

(I'm going to insert a comment here. I know I have a penchant for telling jokes, but the story you are about to read is absolutely true.)

So this teacher is having a meeting at the beginning of a school year with Jonathan and his mother. I'm paraphrasing, but basically he says we need to do this for Jonathan and we need to do that and he will have a successful year.

After calling him Jonathan several times, the mother says, "Just so you're aware, my son is not named Jonathan."

The teacher looks at the paper and is trying to come up with some alternate pronunciation or see if he was misreading it. J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N. He's perplexed.

"It's Joe Nathan," she says.

"That's interesting," he replies, and doesn't question it further. She quickly offers an explanation, right in front of her child.

"Well, I wasn't sure if his father was Joe or Nathan, so I gave him both names."

I found a list in the back of our junk drawer the other day and it was from some name brainstorming the second time we found ourselves searching for a suitable name for our second Rock Star. Dede had definitely vetoed Axel again already, but was willing to consider it as a middle name if it fit with the first name.

It probably doesn't need explanation, but Biggie and Escalator were both options that Gavin thought of.

We got down to Bode and Seeley. 

We really liked the name Bode when Gavin was born as well, but that was right after the Olympics in which American skier Bode Miller proved to be a major (jerk). I was going to put a different word there which also ended with a harsh-sounding consonant, but I didn't want this to have an Explicit Lyrics warning. We thought it was a bad omen. But he seemed to be a changed man at the 2010 Olympics so it didn't have as negative a connotation in our mind anymore.

Seeley comes from Bones. I think it is a great name, and I don't there is any shame in naming him after a character that did the hibbity-bibbity with Dr. Temperance Brennan. I'm pretty confident he would have been the only Seeley in a thousand-mile radius as well.

It was a little different than with Gavin. We were solidly down to Bode or Seeley for about a month before he was born, and unlike with Gavin we had no strong ideas on middle names at all. I started typing the names and viewing them in different fonts with different middle names. I would write them in pen on paper, then write them in pencil and occasionally autograph them as well.

Bode Rush

Seeley Rush

Bode Oliver Rush

Bode Frey Rush

Seeley Oliver Rush

Bode Axel Rush

Seeley Escalator Rush

I love the name Seeley and I love the name Oliver. But if I ever read in the paper that someone named their son, Seeley Oliver, I would probably say, "What the (heck) are they doing to that child?" I was going to put a different word there which also ended with a harsh-sounding consonant, but I didn't want this to have an Explicit Lyrics warning.

Gavin slept one night of his life still being referred to as Baby Axel and wasn't given a name until Day 2, but our other Rock Star became Bode Frey Rush minutes after he was born.

Why Bode Frey? Well, when we first started dating, it was always DedeFrey. Who am I kidding? Still, probably once a week when I really want her attention, it's "DEDEFREY!" Plus, we honored my family with Gavin's middle name, so why not honor Dede's family with Bode's middle name?

Is Bode Frey a Rock Star name?

No doubt. Rock on, B Frey! 

Naming the first Little Man

I thought it was going to be really weird when Baby Axel was born. We called him Baby Axel for about eight months. Not only did WE call him Baby Axel, but EVERYONE WE KNEW called him Baby Axel.

It would have been so much easier if the Detroit Pistons had repeated as NBA Champions in 2005. Early in the season, I asked Dede the following: "If the Pistons repeat this year, can we name our first-born child Rasheed?"

"Definitely," she said (and in my brain I read that as text so that all emotion and inflection was taken out of the spoken word).

Now, the Pistons came prettydarnclose and it is kind of ironic that a bonehead Rasheed Wallace play kept that from happening.

A year later, Dede is pregnant and we have no name. Thanks a lot, Rasheed.

I used to have a saying when I wanted to introduce Dede to a name that she might not immediately realize as having as much potential as it does:

"Now, roll with me on this one, My Heart," I'd say. "Don't just dismiss this on the surface and let it simmer a bit."

Axel? Jamarcus? Roddick?

This is my recommendation to anyone out there naming a child. Do not discuss it with anyone. This is especially true if you have a lot of friends who are teachers.

There are many names that will make a teacher cringe just because of some student they had in class in the past. A perfectly normal name can become as harsh-sounding as Adolf, just because of someone who sat in a desk in front of them for nine months. You don't want one teacher reminding the baby-naming teacher of a kid they might have had in class as well.

I'm not joking when I say I would have named him Axel. Think about it. Let's assume the kid grows up to be a pretty cool teenager. (And honestly, our kids will.) If he is already pretty cool, a name like Axel only enhances that image. Strong? Check. Masculine? Check. Exotic? Check. Rock Star?

Check.

Dede arrived at the hospital with three names in mind. I arrived with four. We knew his middle name was going to be Arthur to honor my grandfather.

The finalists: Benjamin (Benji), Toby and Gavin.

We ultimately opted for Gavin because we thought it was the most unique. One of our nurses called it "very dignified for such a young man." It turned out to not be as unique as we thought. There seem to be a thousand Gavins in his age group and that is fine because it passed my test.

Gavin Arthur Rush

Strong? Check. Masculine? Check. Exotic? Check, at the time. Rock star?

Check.