Picking a Name

Picking a name for our children can be quite difficult for me and Ben.  Actually it is almost impossible for us to agree on a name, especially boy names. 

Before we found out that Tanner was a boy, I was secretly praying for a girl because we had a name picked out and ready to go {we actually both agreed on the first and middle name, and there was no fighting involved}.  When the ultrasound tech told us we were having a boy I was dreading what was to follow.

Ben informed me after the ultrasound that he would like to choose our little boy's name because I got to choose both Reese and Benson's names.  I reluctantly agreed and so began our quest for a name for our baby boy. 

The first name Ben threw out that he truly loved was Bradson/Bradsen.  I'm not even sure how you spell that name.  When Ben told me that was the name he wanted I laughed and asked him if he made up that name.  "Yes!" he said, "Isn't it a cool name!"  I laughed and said we were not naming our son Bradsen/Bradson.

The next name Ben was really adamant about was Rob.  I told him no way and then he began trying to talk me into the name.  He asked me and I quote, "When you think of the name Rob don't some really cool people come to mind?"  I told him no that I didn't know anyone named Rob.  He then went on to name a bunch of people he knew named Rob but unfortunately I didn't know any of them.  Then he named Handsome Rob from the movie the Italian Job.  I told him that he was definitely not who I wanted to name my son after.

I tried giving some input and making a list of names that I liked.  I gave the list to Ben and he went through and crossed every single name off and then added Bradson/Bradsen and Rob.  We weren't getting anywhere.  So I got to the point where I avoided talking about baby names period, because I got frustrated/upset every time we talked about baby names.

At about the time I hit 33 weeks in my pregnancy, I realized I couldn't avoid baby names forever so we started talking about names again.  For a week straight we laid in bed at night and Ben would name off names he thought were great names for our little boy, among those names were Bart, Art, Calvin, Lloyd and my personal favorite Frank.  Those were the names I sat up in bed and said, you aren't really serious are you?  He was dead serious.

After many late nights, we finally agreed on a name, we were going to name our little boy Elliott.  We were both excited about the name, that is until we told Reese.  When we told her what we were going to name her little brother she said and I quote, "Elliott . . . no that's a dumb name!"  Ben and I looked at each other and said maybe we should rethink our name choice. 

And so back to the drawing board we went.  We had talked about the name Tanner a couple of times but I never really loved the name, but it was growing on me because honestly, anything was better than Frank. 

We had asked Reese what she thought about the name Tanner a couple of times.  There was never any hesitation about whether she liked the name or not.  She loved it!  In fact, she told me that one day when she had a baby she was going to name her baby Tanner.  It was definitely a keeper.

 So after much deliberation and many sleepless nights we decided to name our baby boy Tanner {after Ben's good friend} Robert{after my dad} Call.