And He Shall Be Called...

I always thought picking out a name for my children would be so much fun and to a certain extent it is. But it has proven to be a far more difficult task than I would have ever thought! It’s not like when I was a kid and for a span of time this doll was named one thing and then when I found a name that I liked better the dolls name changed as well. No, this child in my womb will have this name for his entire life. ENTIRE LIFE! No take backs or do-overs. Talk about serious pressure. Do you understand the gravity of the situation here?  At about six weeks into this pregnancy I mentioned to Brandon a name that I like for a boy. I say it with the middle name (a generational name that we want to continue passing down) and Brandon says “Yeah, I like that too. There it’s settled!” “What!?” I exclaim, backtracking; now offering other name possibilities too. It’s not that I didn’t like the name but what about all the other name choices out there? We hadn’t even cracked the cover on a name book! How can you possibly settle on a lifetime name for your child after a three minute discussion? I mean, seriously, a boy doesn’t even get a last name change! We didn’t even know what the name meant! What if it meant something awful!? (Actually, although I did consider this “problem” I wasn’t too concerned about it…there are so many different places to find meanings of names certainly I could find one meaning that wouldn’t be awful. Who decides what a name means anyways?)

My other name suggestions were not even getting Brandon to budge. He liked the original and so the original it stayed. After the gender reveal party something clicked and the name just seemed to be right. It still took me some time but I would always refer to little man by his name. In a few weeks I hope to put a handsome sweet little face to the name we have chosen, after much thought (3 minutes), for our son - Jackson.

Jackson Chasteene Werner

So what does the name mean anyways? Really it’s not that difficult. Research shows Jackson to mean…son of jack. Helpful, I know, and completely not true in our case! Actually, it’s like Jack, which is apparently derived from John, which means Gracious gift of God or God is Gracious. See, it’s all about where you look. Again I pose the question, who decides this stuff?

Chasteene is a long, long time family name in the Werner family. It has been passed down for many generations and although we were given complete freedom to not use it I was very glad to pass it on. Besides that was one less name I had to decide on! J 

And for those of you who will ask, the reason we are holding Jack is because the set of letters we had lacked the letter "O". Yes, we plan on calling him Jackson. Yes, it is perfectly ok if you just call him Jack.

Counting the days until Jackson arrives!