Not much to report this week – we’re all sick with a nasty cold, so rather than go into excess detail about the McSnoterson household I’ll write about how we decided on naming this little guy Samuel John.
With Clare’s name Jeremy and I went around and around about it, ultimately each of us deciding on two different names neither of which were Clare. To save ourselves the arguing this time around we just talked about names we liked and had it narrowed down to four or five that we thought were acceptable. We knew that we would know his name once we met him, or at least we hoped so.
That said, in the final few weeks before Sam was born I started to get my heart set on Miles. I like the fact that it’s both a word and a name and I love the connotation of traveling that goes along with it. J liked it because of Miles Davis. We were also throwing around Luke, Nevan (J’s favorite), Dominic (my favorite), and a few others. I liked Sam but it’s a fairly common name right now so I was struggling with that it was to popular. But, like I said, I was starting to get set on the name Miles.
Then he was born, and promptly screamed in anger, kicked and punched anyone who came near him, and screamed some more with rage for the first twenty minutes of his life. We couldn’t stop laughing at what a strong, angry little guy he was. The name Miles just didn’t fit him. Miles is a thoughtful, cerebral guy. J’s comment was that our son is going to beat Miles up on the playground somday (note to Sam: there will be no beating anyone up, named Miles or otherwise).
That afternoon after he was born I was holding him and I said “He’s Sam!” And he is! I know that there will be other Sam’s in his class at school, and he will know other Sam’s, but it’s a good, solid name and it suits him. John is named after my father, which also fits since the two of them have a special bond already. Sam also has a tendency to spit up or have diaper leaks on Grandpa so I joke that it’s a good thing he’s his namesake.
