Wow your name was a hard process!! It was such a hard process that we didn't settle on your name until August 16th and your due date was October 7th. I really thought it might come down to us having to decide at the hospital. They will not allow you to leave the hospital without a name. I knew we would have to have a name by then. Thankfully we finally came to a decision. I kind of feel a tad bit guilty because both of the names were the names I wanted in the end. I know your Dad loves it though. I think it is really hard because it is the name that will be with you the rest of your life. I didn't want to decide on a name and then months or years down the road, dislike the name. Or what if you didn't like the name? You were stuck with it forever.
The process started a long time ago. We decided that we would not talk names until we found out the gender at 4 months. I kept throwing out names, but Weston was not liking any of them. We decided that it would be better to hash it out when we actually had a gender. So, when we found out the gender at the end of May, I decided to go get a baby name book. I knew that was what we were going to need to get through the process. I had always wanted the name "William Patrick" for a boy. Named after both of my grandfathers...Bill and Pat. Weston liked William, but did not want to use Patrick. So, we scratched that. One weekend we went through the baby book of names. It was a great baby book because it gave you ALL kinds of information on each name. It would give you the year it was most popular, girl/boy names that went well with it, the background of the name, other people who have the name, what the name means...I mean basically anything you want to know about a name...this book had it. It even told you what to do/not to do when picking a name like listen to other people, no tongue twisters, no last names for first names, no rhyming, both names should not be two syllables, or watch out for names that can be shorten in most cases the child will have a nickname. It also split it up into groups like Biblical, Old Fashioned, Brisk and Breezy, Celtic, Charm and Graces, Classical, French, German, Greek...etc. It was about 300 pages long and I think we pretty much went through the whole entire book. It was very tiring. I basically let Weston go through the book. He was really picky. I would throw out names I liked and he would shoot them down. He never said any names that I was like "ewww no". I guess I am not really picky. We did both agree that we do like traditional names. We both liked Biblical names. We didn't want to name you something unordinary like Apple or Leviticus. We made a list. Names we both liked. Names that Weston thought were alright. Names that I thought were alright (which ended up being blank). The names that we both liked we then narrowed down to seven names. We had Levi, Lucas, William, Grant, Owen, Jackson, and Liam. We might have had more, but I can't remember. We started off telling our close friends and my parents those names just to get opinions. Pop couldn't say Liam, so that was quickly removed. Levi was too country we were told, so that was quickly removed. Lucas was removed, but I don't remember why. So we ended up with four names. Williams, Grant, Owen, and Jackson. Then we were not sure the order to put them in or which two to pick. I sent an email to my parents, my brother and Leah, and Angeleck to see their opinion. Basically they liked all of them, so it was not a huge help. The book told us to choose a name and call the baby by that name all day to see what we were liking. I kept gravitating towards Jackson. I just really loved that name. Weston said he really liked Grant. We both liked William Owen because William would be after my grandfather and Owen would be after Weston's grandfather. We just were kept going towards Jackson and Grant for some reason. So, then we basically decided on Jackson Grant. Well, the more I thought about it, the more bothered I was that it was after two generals or two presidents. Yes, I was over thinking the process. I started to kind of leak out the name just to see what people would say. Every time I would tell people that name, they would say something about two generals. It really bothered me for some reason. They would never say anything about liking the name. Just that we were naming our child after generals. Plus with this being the first child and a boy, I really wanted some sort of family name in there. I have always wanted my child to be named after someone in my family. I am a huge family person. It means a lot to me. It was the only thing I knew that I really wanted. So, I started throwing out Dukes or Duke for the middle name. Weston just wasn't set on it. He just wasn't real sure about putting a last name as a middle name. I kept telling him that the middle name is never used (his middle name is Ray-hence why he called you Ray Ray for the first several months of your life). He texted me the weekend of August 2nd while I was in Montgomery at a baby shower saying that he had prayed about it and was thinking that maybe we should go with William Owen. A couple of weeks later, specifically August 15th, we went to dinner with Aaron and Meagan. Aaron is one of Weston's closest friends. They mentioned baby names. I told them about Duke. Aaron really supported Duke. He liked it. I could tell things changed that night. Weston said the next day that if I really wanted Duke that he was good with it. I was stoked!!! I asked him a million times if he was ok with it. He said yes. So that Sunday, we went to my parents house for dinner. We told the whole family the name. Jackson Duke. It was very well received. It sounds like a cowboy name. It just fits us perfectly.
Matt asked that night how I was going to announce the name on FB. I had done something for the reveal (tax write off coming October 7th) and baby gender (ice cream cones). I told him that I had just planned on announcing the name. He said that wouldn't be any fun, so he wanted me to spell out the name. A letter a day. So I did that. Each day for the next week, I revealed a letter. After I got J-A-C-K-S...everyone pretty much knew Jackson. Then I spelled D-U and basically just told the middle name. Everyone loves it!!! Or at least that is what they tell me :) I love it for sure.
The weekend after we decided and started to make the announcement on FB, I came to work on that Monday where Angeleck told me she had a surprise. I closed my eyes and when I opened them, she had made your name in block letters for the nursery. Jason and her had spent all weekend doing that. It was such a touching surprise! Since we had decided the name so late, it really took off so much stress of having to figure out when to make those letters for your nursery. They fit the theme of the nursery perfect. I just started crying. I loved being able to see your name. I often will walk by the nursery and just look at those letters. I love having a name to call you. Of course I still call you LBT and other people still do too. I thought you would end up being called LBT in real life :) You will always be my little baby Tanner.
From the baby book: Jackson- popularity: #23. Most popular at #23 in 2011. Nicknames: Jack, Jax Variants:Jaxon Sisters: Avery, Claire, Addison, Ella, Kennedy, Harper Brothers: Mason, Wyatt, Lincoln, Cooper, Landon, and Carter. Jackson has history, tradition, and a spot-on stylish sound. As a firmly masculine surname, it makes a good sibling match for androgynous girls like Bailey and Talyor. Painter Jackson Pollock lends the name as extra creative-power panache. In the World: Artist Jackson Pollock, President Andrew Jackson, singer Michael Jackson, General "Stonewall" Jackson.
Duke: Popularity: #1199. Most popular in 1908 at #744. Sisters: Dixie, Bess, Queenie, Roxie, Dolly, Goldie Brothers: Ike, Dutch, Major, Mack, Rocky, and Buzz. We're naming kids Princess and Diamond now, so why is Duke such a hard sell? Granted, even the classic American Dukes-Ellington, Snider, and John Wayne-were christened by other names (Edwards, Edwin, and Marion, respectively). You can follow the same path, using Duke as a nickname for any name you please. In the World: The icons listed above, plus "Duke Nukem" video games; Duke University; TV series The Dukes of Hazzard.
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