What's in a name?

Byron Leo Dodd. That only took us 5 months to figure out. When we went to the hospital we honestly had no idea what we were going to name this kid that was about to be born. Picking a name hadn't really been my top priority over the last month or two so the thought of committing to a name on May 11th was more stressful then the thought of giving birth.

The delivery process took no time at all so we suddenly had a tiny baby in our arms with no name. We had narrowed down our options to 3-4 names so we started what I like to call negotiating what name to choose.

First up was Bennett, I liked the name but was worried it was too contemporary. I wasn't in love with it but it was a good name. Sam told me that if we named him Bennett he would call him Ben. That ended the negotiations on that name because to me if I wanted to call him Ben then I would just name him Ben. I was sad to let this name go because Porter really liked it and wanted to call his brother Ben 10.

Next up was Remington which I just thought was cool because it was a gun name and I thought Sam would like it. In the end it was too long, I didn't like the nickname "Rem" or "Remi", and Sam didn't like it. Done. Sorry Carri, I tried.

Then came Cliff. Sam has an uncle and I have a great-uncle named Cliff. Its definitely an old-fashioned name. The problem is Sam and I can't agree on Clifford (his uncle), Cliffton (my great-uncle) or just Cliff. Clifford Dodd sounds too much like Clifford "the Big Red" Dodd (Dog), he would totally get called that at some point in his life so I refused. Sam didn't like Cliffton. We couldn't figure out a family middle name (we always choose a family members name as their other name) that we liked with Cliff. Also sad to let this name go but we just couldn't figure it out.

Our last name we had been holding onto was Byron. I liked it, Sam liked it, but most people we told really didn't like it. In the end we had to just pick a name that we liked and know that everyone else would come around.

Byron's name found its way to us through my sister, Trisha. In an effort to help us Trisha had found some relatives names on NewFamilySearch.com and emailed them to me. Byron was on that list and sounded like a good old-fashioned name that wasn't used very much anymore. Sam and I thought we were so clever and funny because we figured that by or bi meant twice or two and Sam's Dad's name is Ron so it would be funny to say Byron is Ron II. We told Sam's family mostly as a joke at the time but the name just stuck around after that. So in the end we chose Byron because it was a family, old-fashioned, seldom used name that was the closest we were ever going to get to naming a baby after Sam's dad.

I chose Leo as his middle name because that is my Grandpa Miners name and I liked it.

After the birth certificate was signed and done I started to think about what the name Byron means. I vaguely remember it meaning "bear" so I looked it up and sure enough it was an Anglo-Saxon name meaning "bear". My little Byron is going to be a little animal because Byron Leo means Bear Lion.