What's in a Name

Juliet: "What's in a name?
That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

Naming a baby can be fun but hard work...especially if you have a last name like ours.

I am very proud to be a Foote, but the lastname has brought great amusement when we were thinking of names for our firstborn, and especially when I was still working for the newspaper.

Names like Webster -- shortened to Web -- sprang forth from coworker's lips, followed by much merriment. Or the inevitable Left and Right...and, of course, Big. We chuckled and came up with our own list of more serious choices.

But even some of our own choices needed to be eliminated.

For instance, I loved the name Ella...but put it together with Foote, and hmm... And Stuart was quite keen on Harrison, but both his mother and I talked that one down. Besides Harrison Foote sounding similar to an actor we know and love...can anyone say Harry Foote?? The kid would have disowned us.

We chose Emily for our firstborn, naming her for my beloved paternal grandmother. Her name means "industrious"...or "busy one." Very fitting, given our daughter's personality and struggles to stay focused. Her middle name is my firstname, Susanne, which means "lily."

Along came our second baby, a little boy. We chose Edward...just because we liked that it was an old-fashioned and strong name. His name means "guardian of prosperity," which is funny since he's always winning board games, earning him the nickname "Mr. Moneybags." We gave him Stuart's name as his middle name, which means "steward."

So when it came to naming a third baby, we were in a quandary of our own doing. Both of our children had "E" firstnames...and both had "S" names for middle names. We had to come up with another "E. S." name or risk making this child feel like the oddball.

If we had another girl, I had long wanted to use the name Esther, the name of our adopted grandmother who passed away shortly after Emily was born. Finding an "S" name to go with it proved very challenging, and we gave up and chose "Elisabeth" instead.

But even more challenging was finding another boy's name that began with "E" that we liked and went with the other two kids' names. In the end, we agreed on Ethan which means "strong, firm," and Samuel which means "asked of God." Voila! Another "E. S." name.

And on September 14, 2008, that "strong" (lunged) little boy, who was definitely "asked for from God," arrived at our house.

Perfect!

The funniest bit is that the kids have temporarily nicknamed him "Eethie" which, of course, is close to "Leechie." *wink*