His Name

It was really hard to pick out another boy name for us. We picked Luke when we were dating and knew without a doubt if we had a son, he would be named Luke. We never really thought about other boy names. So, after we had our Luke, I knew we needed another boy name because chances were pretty high that we would have another boy. I love classic names. I am not really a fan of trendy names and I guess everyone has their own opinion of what constitutes “trendy” so I’ll leave it at that to avoid offending anyone.

The name we picked for our son is…….Ethan Harrison James. I wanted to finalize it because I like to call him by his name when I talk to him, and I want Luke to know his name. I guess it really isn’t “final” until we fill out the birth certificate but a blog is pretty official. Right? :-) We picked Ethan fairly early on in the pregnancy—but I worried it was just too popular. I read this article a couple of weeks ago and it kind of sent me into a tailspin. They list Ethan in the opening of the article with the name Madison (which is in my opinion a very trendy name) and seem to imply that Ethan is a trendy name. It is currently the third most popular boy’s name in the U.S. BUT after doing some extensive research, that’s really not true. I found this site that adds up all the alternate spellings of names and after you add all the different Aidens and Jaydens together, Ethan moves to number five. And five is better than three to me. :) The same is true for Texas. Ethan is number 8 in Texas--but when you do the math (which I did) and add the Aiden/Ayden/Aidans and Jayden/Jadens and Christian/Cristians together, Ethan moves to number 11! So it’s not even in the top 10. I just really didn’t want a trendy name but I am okay with a classic name that is popular. Some people may not think there is a difference, but I do. Ethan has been around for a long time. There were four Ethans in the Bible. The name Ethan has been on the rise in popularity since the 1950s. Our name requirements were:

• distinctly masculine name
• a name that can’t be shortened
• a name that means something

Ethan is Hebrew in origin and means “strong and firm.” We picked Harrison as the middle name because that is Mark’s dad’s middle name and it has been a middle name in the family for several generations (Mark’s dad’s great grandfather and great-great grandfather).

So, hopefully people don’t think we are just followers and go with whatever is popular. We put a lot of thought into this. There’s a chance that he may not be the only Ethan in his Kindergarten class but I think I can live with that.