What is a Name?

We been talking about names ever since we found out we were getting a boy.  So why was naming this little guy so hard?   There were old names we had talked about for a long time and there were new names we liked.  We did more joking then anything serious.  I really wanted him to have some kind of story or meaning behind his name like Maggie's name (she is named after her grandmas - Margaret and Peggy and her middle name is her birthmoms).  We joked and said we could call him after his grandpa', Leslie (Les) and Fred, and name him Led or Freslie.  Those still crack me up.  As October 3 got closer we joked that if he was born on that day we would name him after Les and My grandpa, Otto as it is both of their birthdays.  His name would have been Leslie Otto Larson and his initials would be LOL (laugh out loud).  Ha ha that one made Chelly cross her legs and say he wasn't coming out no matter what.  We finally got serious and narrowed it down to 6ish and put it on a list hanging up on the fridge.  They were:

Kyle

Max

Jake

Cole

Carter

Tyler

Max was my favorite (has been for years and No it isn't because it starts with and M.  I just love it).  Ok technically Carson has always been my favorite but Carson Larson.... No I just couldn't do it to the kid no matter how much I loved the name.

Mike liked the name Kyle the best and Maggie was set on Jake, or Tyler but mostly Jake.  So you can see our problems.  As it got closer, we started to try out some of the names trying to call the baby by one of them if we talked about him.  I think knowing he was going to be part Guatemalan so he could be darker complected made some of the name just not seem right after that.  Good bye Cole, Kyle, and Tyler.

  We told Chelly the names and well she had her favorite.  We told family the possibilities and got some comments to try and waver us one way or the other.  I was more confused then ever.  Then one of Mike's good friends named their son Max.  We decided to just wait till we saw him thinking we would have angels singing and whisper his name in our ears.

The day came and no angels whispering his name.  I just knew in my heart that his name was Max before he was born but then after, not so sure.  We just called him by his birth name in the hospital, Gabe.  I know it was hard for Chelly (as it was for Kelsey) that we weren't going to use their birthnames.  However we needed to pick his name in a way to make him feel like our son.  It was hard at the hospital to try different names out with Chelly there as we didn't want to hurt her and we never really had time by ourselves with him to talk to him and figure it out.  So the day came for him to go home from the hospital and people had been asking.  We finally just turned to Maggie gave her the list and let her decide, knowing what she was going to pick...  Jake.    Chelly was happy as she didn't really like Max.  We gave Chelly the opportunity to use Gabriell (his birthname) or Elliott (her last name) for his middle name.  She chose Elliott.  So we had a name:  Jake Elliott Larson.  Great!  We drove home but there was something off.  We didn't race to call anyone other than my parents (mike's where in Disneyland so we didn't call them). 

We decided not to tell anyone the name as we weren't really sure about it.  We wanted a few days of calling him this to make sure.  It was a long two days.  Sunday finally came and as we were driving down to Denver for placement, Maggie and I had this conversation.  

 Maggie -  "Mom. where are we going?"

Me-   "To pick up baby Jake and bring him home."

Maggie-  "Yeah, but he needs a M name mom like us.  His name is Max."

Me-   "No honey remember you picked Jake, his name is going to be Jake."

Maggie-  "Does Jake start with and M?"

Me-  " no it starts with a J"

Maggie-  "No mom his name is Max."

Me-  "whatever Mags we will talk about this at home."

I started to get a little frustrated as I loved the name Max and had found it very hard to call him Jake.  I wanted to always change it to Jack (one of our nephews names).  Not to mention we were on our way to placement which I knew was going to be hard.  I thought she would just forget about it.  She didn't.

When asked at placement what the baby's name was she said Max.  I warned Chelly about the conversation but told her we would just see how it went.

We decided to just go forward with the name Jake (even know I keep spelling it Jack and have to change it).  Monday we went to the doctor filled out all the paperwork with Jake Elliott Larson.  Mike called and put him on the insurance and we were good to go.  Then neighbors and friends started to come here and there. When they would ask Maggie what his name was she would clearly without hesitation say Max.  After a day or so this Mike admitted to me that he kept hesitating before calling him Jake.  ME TOO I said.  Thank you I'm not crazy.  So we started to call him Max and well that fit.  No it isn't Maxwell, Maximus, or Max million.  Just Max as Mike is a name them what you are going to call them kind of guy.  Well I showed him, since you can't shorten Max I elongate it for a nick name and have called him all of the above.   

So after much anticipation, our sons name is and forever will be ...

(unless he leagaly changes it when he is older)

Max Elliott Larson

When I told Chelly about everything, she was a good sport and said, well at least you tried.  My only down fall to the whole name is the middle initial E.  No one really liked the nickname Maxi, so when they called him into the lab for some lab work there it was.... Max E. Larson I hadn't even thought of this.   

Oh well that is how it goes.  I guess Max got a story to his name after all.

You will be my little Max-E  forever!