What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot

On Saturday, Brandon and I resumed an old gig playing a thirty minute set at the retirement home. Afterwords, a little lady came up to me and said, "I have a name for your son!"
"Okay," I replied, "I'd love to hear it."
"Scotty!" she announced proudly.

Two minutes later another sweet lady touched my arm saying, "Now I really have a name, and I've only ever known one man with this name, and he was a good man...Ateo." While she let the name resonate, she added, "It's Italian, but he was from Princeton, West Virginia."

Needless to say, once people found out we were having a boy, the next logical question has been, "What are you going to name him?"

And we have to keep saying, "We haven't picked a name yet."

I've had several Matts suggest the name "Matt" and Tim and David suggested we name him after their cat Bertram, or maybe just something simple and easy to spell. Kathy and a friend at work suggested Aiden, and Angie suggested Sawyer James.

Brandon said anything but Anthony Scott Story.

For the longest time, Brandon was opposed to baby name books, but I finally broke down and bought one at a used book store. It smells like smoke and has 40,000 boys names to wade through. Maybe the husband was right...nah. Anyhow, its not easy to choose. We have some family names that we like, but getting the right combination with a middle or first name isn't easy. With a last name like Story, it's easy to pick one that's sing-songy. Definitely a name that doesn't begin with an "S" or end in a "y" or "ie"

In my quest to learn more about boy's names, The Baby Name Wizard stands as my favorite name site. It rates a name's popularity over the ages, defines it's meaning, and allows people to comment about nicknames.

I just have this idea that seeing the little guy, one name might click more than another.

I like how names were occasionally given in the Bible. An angel of the Lord would come to the mother and say, "And the child shall be called..." It sort of takes the heat off the parents coming up with a good name. "Mommy, where did my name come from?" "Well dear, God named you." How special is that.

I want our boy to have a strong, simple name that means something to him and to us, and that in some way impels him towards a fulfilling future. I just don't know what that name is yet. And you know what, that's okay, because he hasn't been born yet. And once he gets here, he will have that name for the rest of his life (hopefully it will suit him well enough that he won't want to have it legally changed one day to something insane like Superman).

So, as Brandon and I continue to enjoy our random name discussions, we'll continue to deliver that disapointing answer, "We haven't picked a name yet."