The Naming Game

Picking his name.

For a few weeks, when we first found out about the pregnancy and went to our first sonogram with April, we thought we were having a girl.  That night after the sonogram, Jillian and I went home and picked out a beautiful name for a girl, one that we both loved and had very significant meaning for us...Zeva Rosalie Harbaugh.

Picking a name for a girl went so smooth, that it was a bit surprising to us, once we found out we were having a boy, not a girl, how difficult it was to find a name we agreed on.  We didn't like any of them. We were also in the middle of packing up the house in Humboldt and getting ready to move to Portland, so I suggested that we give it a rest until we moved, that our brains would have more time to ponder the possibilities when we were less stressed about the move.

A few weeks later we started up again.  We had rules for picking the name - couldn't be in the top 100 names, couldn't be hard to spell or pronounce, it couldn't be 'uniquely' spelled (like my name), didn't want it to start with J since both our names do, nor the letter E since both of Jillian new nieces are Eden and Emily.  Being list makers we just kept adding and scratching off names. We were re-watching Battlestar Galactica so had names like Apollo and Helo on the list, also Malcolm, Finn, Jasper, even William made on the list in a moment of desperation along with many others....like Funfetti.

As time went on we were feeling more and more frustrated....and then Paddle came to the rescue.  That woman has an awesome talent for naming things.  She's the one that came up with the name for The Impropriety Society, and most of the names for the events we had.  She's even changed her own first name, finding one that fit her better.  So sensing our frustration, she came over and started helping us pick a name for our baby....she must of thought we were being difficult because we just didn't like anything.

We finally did decided on both the middle and last names, so that was a start. We always agreed that Harbaugh would be the family name and that I would change my name legally to match.  For the middle name, we decided that we really liked how Rosalie honored our dear friend Annie, so wanted something as meaningful and powerful for our boy too.  So we decided on Cooper....I really like the name, and even considered it for a first name, and we felt good about giving him April's last name.  April will always be part of him and in his life, but we like how this adds an extra bond for them.

So there were were.....Something Cooper Harbaugh. Some more time went by and Paddle come over and tried again.  This time we came up with a short list to share with Jillian's Mom and brother when they came to visit.  I can't remember all the names, Drake was on the list, Thor was one, River was another, and Lake was on there too.  At first I laughed at the name Lake while Paddle tried to tell me what a cool, strong name it is.  I was sure Jillian's mom would laugh at it too.  But it turns out, she didn't, she like most of the names on the list....although she did ask that we don't name him Thor.  

At this point Jillian finally reached total frustration and was done with the whole process....she told me to pick - Lake or River.  I sent a text to Paddle for advice, she assured me we wanted a calm Lake, not a turbulent River.  And then, pulled the partnership card!  She said, that if April 'gets' to have the baby, and I 'get' to raise the baby, then she should get to name the baby.  So Lake Cooper Harbaugh he is...I can hardly wait to meet him!