Wyatt’s Name.

So here I am, all by myself.  The kids are all in bed sleeping- even Wyatt- and Brett is sleeping in a snow cave at a work retreat.  I hope he doesn’t freeze to death.

Sometimes it still seems a bit weird that I have a son named Wyatt.  With all my other kids’ names I had known far far ahead of time that that was a name I wanted, but Wyatt’s just came up not too long before he was born.  I tried out so many names for him when I was pregnant.  When I first found out it was a boy, I thought Skandar (introduced to me by this actor) was it.  I told my family that’s the name I wanted.  I still like the name, and I had Hazel saying it for a while, which was super adorable, but Brett said no and I thought it was just a titch too far out there.  I also tried out Foster for a while, in fact, when my sister happened to run into a salesperson at a store with a name badge that said Foster, she talked to him for a while about how her sister (me) was going to name her baby Foster.  Brett also brought up Enoch and for about one day I thought for sure that was going to be it, and then after that day I thought –what in the world was I thinking?  I also considered Colter/Kolten for a day or so, because Brett also liked that—and he liked so few.  I liked Chet a bit, and I loved the sound of the name Tolkien (brought up by my sister-in-law Jessica), but just couldn’t go with it because of it’s huge JRR association.  Not that it’s a bad connection either, just that it’s so very strong, and I’m not a die-hard fan or anything.  I also thought about Forrest/Forrester, Hawkins/Hawke (shortened for Hawthorne), and Thatcher.   And right at the very very end, after I had decided on Wyatt but thought that Brett wouldn’t let me have it, I thought that I would name him Oaks, but Brett liked that even less, and so I got Wyatt.  At this present moment, I think if I hadn’t been able to have Wyatt, I think I would want to have named him Fielder.  I think Fielder Tate is the name I’d use if I had any more boys (don’t get any ideas, Brett is ADAMANT that we are done.  (And if we WERE to have one more, it would definitely be a girl.)  ;) ) 

I had mentioned to my sister Andrea in one of our many, MANY conversations about names over the course of our pregnancies that I have always loved the name Wyatt—the name of our little brother.  She agreed that it is a wonderful name.  Later she was with Wyatt at a family get-together and mentioned to him that we had said we admired his good name, and he said something to the effect of –don’t think about taking my name.  At that point, I wasn’t sure just how much I wanted it, but as I felt myself leaning more and more towards it, I told Andrea not to tell anyone I was considering it, especially Wyatt himself as it would be pointless if I didn’t end up naming my baby Wyatt anyway.  Then, the strangest thing ever, Andrea’s husband Tim said that HE liked the name Wyatt—and Andrea hadn’t brought it up to him at all!  So crazy. 

Also, I remember one night when I was browsing a children’s clothing store online, it had lots of personalized things—like shirts and shoes and whatnot that you could have your child’s name put on, and one of the little baby pajamas had the name Wyatt on it, and I almost started crying because I thought Brett wouldn’t let me have Wyatt.

Anyway, when I had Wyatt and Brett finally gave me the go-ahead for the name Wyatt, I called up my brother Wyatt and said, “Hey, I just had a baby and named him Wyatt.  You’re cool with that, right?”  And he said he didn’t mind.  And at the end of the conversation he said, “Treat Wyatt right!  Give him a good life!”  and in an email he recently sent me, he said, “How’s Wyatt?  He’s my main man.”  So I think Wyatt is all good with having a cute little namesake. 

We did basically the same thing with Wyatt’s middle name, Blake.  Blake is Brett’s younger brother, and we didn’t ask him if we could use the name either.  I’ve loved the name Blake forever, and figured it wouldn’t be an issue for us to use it as a middle name.  Blake is a very chill guy anyway, so I had no worries. 

So that is the story of Wyatt’s name.  He has two very special guys to share his names with.

Oh, and by the way, had I had a girl instead of Wyatt, I would have had two names already picked out—one for a redhead and one for a brunette.  But that would have been too easy.  :)

(The pictures are from the beginning of Feb.)