Caleb is almost ten months old, but it is never too late to write a blog post about the reasons we chose his name, correct?
Good. Now we have we have that clear, I'll be moving on to the explanation.
As you may recall, Brian and I chose to be surprised on the gender of the child, just as we will if God should choose to bless us with child once again.
The girl's name was easy. In fact, it was something I had chosen years ago, not long before Brian came into my life, and he happily agreed that it was a good name. Together, we decided on a middle name and called it a day.
But the boy's name was another matter, and it took us months to officially decide. (This is Brian's fault, because I chose Caleb early on. Sorry, honey.) Let me explain the story.
It is tradition in Brian's family for the father's first name to be passed on as the son's middle name. Brian's middle name, David, is his father's name. So we knew that if we had a son, his middle name would be Brian. That was clear. The challenge was trying to find something that worked well with Brian. I guess, for me, I had heard Brian so often as a first name, and never as a middle, that I just wasn't sure what to pair with it. It seemed like so many first names did not work, more than the ones that did.
So the name tossing began, and it continued for months and months. "How about (insert name here) Brian?" one of us would ask out of the blue. I had thought Caleb Brian sounded nice together, and so I rallied for Caleb fairly early on in the pregnancy journey. However, at the time, Brian had a student, one student, named Caleb. How awkward to come in announcing the name of your son, only to make said student feel as though your child his is namesake?
Well, the plot thickens, because said student conveniently moved away around February of last year, thus creating an opening in the Caleb name department. (Though not-so-conveniently in other areas. I can't remember what instrument he played, but he was indeed a loss to the band.) Brian still wasn't sold yet. We went through male name after male name, and just nothing was clicking just right. There are other male names I like, but none that just went well with Brian. We considered Daniel, but realized that the other couple at church, due to give birth just after us and were having their first boy, would probably name their son Daniel after the father. (We were right, and we were glad we didn't pick that!)
One day, I was on the phone with my sister, who was asking me about the name progress. Brian and I were keeping names a secret, even from family, but it didn't stop her from tossing out names left and right. After she kept going through names, I kept putting them down for one reason or another. Then she said, "I'm so sick of the name Caleb. Everyone around here is naming their sons Caleb."
Silence.
"You're thinking of Caleb, aren't you?"
I explained, that yes, we were, and she went on to reexplain that she didn't dislike the name, but admitted that there were at least three Caleb boys at her small church and another expecting couple she knew were also getting ready to name their son Caleb. It seems that in my former stomping grounds, the name Caleb keeps popping up.
Thankful, for once, that I no longer lived there, I didn't feel thwarted in the least in naming my son Caleb. In the Poconos, it isn't as common, at least, not that we've seen.
We didn't actually officially decide until Mother's Day, two days before Caleb came into this world, and for the record, almost one week after my due date. When Caleb was born, and Brian announced that we had a son, I will never forget looking at him and calling him "Caleb" for the very first time.
Caleb means "faithful", "bold", and "brave". It also means "whole hearted" in Hebrew. We know the man of faith that the Caleb of the Bible was. We pray that Caleb will follow Jesus Christ whole heartedly of his own choosing one day, being the faithful and bold man that God has called him to be. What a blessing he is already, and we know he will be all his days!
So that's the story! The only downer? If we do get pregnant again, we will have to go through this name choosing all over again. At least the girl is picked out!
