A rose by any other name

Helping out at my mom's school for Dr. Seuss's birthday

     As the time gets closer for our little one to arrive, people are asking more and more if we have chosen a name. Spoiler alert...I won't be disclosing our name choice in this entry. Mostly because we haven't chosen one yet. And I have been thinking everyday what we might call him. When I am having dreams or day dreams and I get to a point where I am about to call him something, I pause in the dream and say nothing. Sometimes I run the dream several times using different names. It is kind of fun, and a little disconcerting not to have a name to use. I keep hearing the Bard's line-"Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?". 

     Jen and I have a list. It currently has 24 names on it. Which for us is pretty good since we had over 50 in our original list. Some have family connections. Some are poetic in nature. Some are nature based. Some have an Irish background. Our list has a lot of variations to be sure. One of the topics Jen and I have talked about is that girl's names seem to have a wider range of unique names and tend to be more creative. Similar to women's fashion choices. But I digress. 

     I joke sometimes that I am amazed that I have the name Shawn and not something a little different. You see I was born in 1968 in San Francisco. Now my parents weren't big into the hippie culture in California, and had actually only recently arrived in California from Connecticut. Although my mom's hair was fairly long, and my dad had a Jerry Garcia looking beard, I don't think they would have been the poster children for Woodstock. But I do joke that I could have had a name like Rainbow Moonturtle.

     I have always liked my name. Shawn has a few variations-Sean, Shaun, and Sian. It is the Irish version of John or James, and from the Norman French Jehan. Shawn and Shaun tend to be the female version of Sean. And Sian is a gaelic version. I remember that there was a girl with the name Shawn on the children's TV show ZOOM, and I loved that she spelled her name like mine. And Moriarty has occasionally brought the Sherlock Holmes comments. And I must admit with recent Sherlock Holmes movies, the BBC Sherlock TV show, and Elementary in the states, I do enjoy hearing my name mentioned a lot. Professor James Moriarty is the arch nemesis of Sherlock Holmes in case you are wondering why I am babbling on about Sherlock Holmes. And my middle name of Edward was my paternal grandfather's and my uncle's name.  

     When I was younger, somewhere in my mid to late teens, I remember seeing The World According to Garp which starred Robin Williams. I remember thinking that if I ever had a son, it would be cool to name him Garp. And maybe Zachary Garp just for fun. Garp has been vetoed by several people. Sorry sprout. Although you might get the nickname Garp from me from time to time. The name Hawkeye was suggested to us. It worked for me. I loved MASH with Hawkeye Pierce, and of course there is the Last of the Mohicans from which the name in MASH came from. And the character in the Avengers comic and movie. I said that there would be pressure to make sure he can shoot archery really well. Hawkeye is not on the current list.

     So why am I feeling stress about naming our son? I might be holding too much importance in the name we choose. Maybe not. Will our choice get him picked on? Does a name hold that kind of power? I do remember being called Chef Boyardee as child as an insult for a brief period of time in 3rd or 4th grade. But my dad was and is a chef so it didn't really bother me. I thought it was a compliment in some way. Does a more feminine sounding male name hold any power one way or another? Does a more traditional male sounding name? What about a more gender neutral name? I am not sure. Could we make up a name? Do we name him for he town he was conceived in? Will his initials spell something odd? If we name him Oliver Holmes Moriarty (OHM) will he be an enlightened electrical engineer? We have talked about having his middle name be Holmes. Mostly for the entertainment value of having Holmes and Moriarty together. I also joked that we could add a III to the end of his name just for fun. I joke a lot about his name, at least in my own head. And I do hold importance about his name.

     One of my friends Jim has a great teambuilding activity called the Story of Your Name. In a group you go around and tell what you know of the story of your name. Many cultures have deep meaning or stories attached to names. One of my neighbors had the name Thor Thorson. That was his actual name. Big Norwegian in case you are wondering. When I lived in Japan I had to have a Hanko. A hanko is a stamp with your name in Japanese characters or  kanji, to officially sign for things. In many asian paintings you will see a red block of characters stamped in the one of the corners of the painting. That is one use of a hanko. Anyway, the vice principal of my school did the characters for my name, both first and last. The characters for Shawn he chose, meant the "sound of the tide" and for Moriarty he chose "Asian Tea House in the Woods". I still have the hanko 20+ years later. I thought it gave a nice romantic overtone to my name. And on the opposite side, a Thai friend of mine used to jokingly call me "white butted monkey". Not quite so romantic.   

     I have been going over names in my head everyday. I probably add and remove 4-5 names a day from my internal list. We get one shot at this. No pressure. We are hoping to go into the hospital with 2-3 names to choose from and then make the choice when we meet him. I hope Wendal Holmes Garp Sebastian Moriarty like his name. I guess I could always call him Thing 1.

Mountain Lion, Puma, Cougar, Rock Cat. What's in a name?