And... We've Got a Name!

S. and I agreed that it's probably the right time to tell everyone our baby's name now, especially since we (okay, more like I) apparently feel comfortable enough with the name to have it slip out in public company! Last Friday, we were having dinner with our friends T. and L., and after dinner, as they were walking away, I said while rubbing my belly, "Poor <baby's name>. He must be feeling so squished from all the food I ate tonight!" Oops. Almost as soon as I said that, I realized my mistake and hoped fervently that I hadn't been overheard. Unfortunately, L. did hear, tossing back, "I heard that!" I guess the secret's out!

It's not like we hadn't been holding onto this name for awhile now - I think starting from week 5 or 6, we'd already been playing around with various boys' names, and we always came back to this one as the one we liked best. We did what a lot of new parents-to-be did - we each looked for baby names that we liked and came up with our own lists. We tried to see which names overlapped for us... Unfortunately, none of them did! Then we just started going through the names together that we'd come up with to see which ones we liked. 

I'll reveal his middle name first - Franklin. This was something I had proposed to S. early on, and lucky for me, he agreed to it. I really wanted to name our son after my uncle on my mom's side. He's the only uncle on my mom's side of the family, and he's both unmarried and without kids. As me, my brother, and my cousins grew up, he took care of us like a real dad would, taking us on trips together, planning weekend outings for us, and just being an awesome father figure. He's one of the kindest, generous, intelligent, family-oriented men I know, and I would be so proud if our son could grow up to be like my Uncle Franklin.

Given that we wanted to go with <something> Franklin Chong, the "K" names were quickly nixed from our list... Think about the initials. Yeah. His father, "Colonel" Sanders, and little KFC. I'm sure our little guy would have loved to deal with that growing up! :) 

We wanted a name that wasn't too common, too Biblical, too much associated with a particular stereotype, etc... We wanted a name that our son could really grow into and make it into something that represents him, his personality/character, whatever that may be. The name we decided on was one that S. had found first, and after saying it aloud a few times, addressing my belly by the name for a couple of weeks, and really just falling in love with saying the name and thinking about the baby with that name for awhile, we've decided to go with it. 

We're going to name our son Aiden Franklin Chong. Aiden has Celtic origins, meaning "fire", which we both liked since "fire" has so many different properties and characteristics, and it'll be up to our son to make the name represent what he will as he grows up. 

We're so excited to meet little Aiden in person, but until then, don't be surprised if you hear us talking about him as if he were here already! :) 

Side note, as I found this to be utterly adorable and I'm sure little Aiden (when he's finally able to read this blog) will find touching: I just found out that S. has gone and purchased little Aiden's first gift already. He bought a baby book that he wants to read to Aiden when he's finally here. :) It's so sweet to see S. this happy and excited about our baby - I love it! <3