My Boys' Names

My friend, Kim, was asking about the middle names we picked out for the baby, and the stories behind all of our boys’ names, so I thought I’d share.

We have given all of our boys family names for their middle names. So, Kolby is Kolby Michael – Michael is his dad’s name (obviously) and his grandpa’s middle name. [Michael’s dad’s name is Dick Michael Bradshaw (Dick, not Richard), and I wasn’t going to use Dick, so Michael worked for him). And the name Kolby is just a name I have liked for a long time – a guy from our church stake was named Kolby (although it was probably spelled with a “C”), and although I didn’t really know him at all, I liked his name when I heard it. And I just thought it was nice to spell it with a “K,” although I have since learned that there are lots more Kolbys and Colbys out there, and that the majority of them spell the name with a “C,” so Kolby will have to deal with having his name spelled wrong all his life – but he’s already used to that – he tells people when they spell his name wrong and asks them to fix it.

Eli’s full name is Elijah Carl. We picked Elijah because in the scriptures Elijah was the prophet who would turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, and often it is said that if you are interested in learning about your ancestors you have the spirit of Elijah. And since I have always been very into genealogy, Elijah seemed like a great name. Eli is our only one so far who goes by a nickname, although we do call him both Eli and Elijah, but we probably use Eli more often now. We had decided to call him Eli when we picked the name, and when he was a baby we didn’t call him Elijah very often at all, so it was quite surprising when Kolby started calling him “Jijah” for Elijah, instead of Eli. We thought that was cute and we called him Jijah too for a while, until he got older and Kolby kept telling me that his name was Eli, not Jijah. So, now we call him Eli most of the time, but we also use Elijah. His middle name is Carl, after my mother’s father, Carl John Spohr Jr., who passed away before he ever got to meet Eli, but Kolby and Eli were both able to go with us to Grandpa Carl’s funeral.

Camden’s name is Camden James. As many of you know, we like to have names picked out really early – we usually have had a boy and a girl name picked out for each baby before we had the ultrasound to find out if it was a boy or a girl. Camden has been our only one that we “changed” the name for – although it was only a couple weeks after we had his ultrasound that we decided to change our minds on the name we had picked out. We had chosen Ezekiel, and were planning on calling him Zeke, which I think is really cute. But everyone we told that name to automatically said, “Zeke the geek!” Now, I know kids can think up a way to tease just about anyone about their name, but when I realized that it was the first thing that most people thought when they heard the name, I started to have doubts about using it. It was just too easy for everyone to think that up – I didn’t want him to be teased forever about his name. So I decided to change the name, but Michael thought that it was a fine name, so he wasn’t too motivated to look for an alternative. I spent days searching through lists of baby names on the internet, printing out lists of possibilities, and then Michael would come home and cross most of the names off the list. (The only ones he would leave on the list were names that I thought were nice, but just too common). So, then I came across Camden on one internet list, and I loved it. It’s similar enough to Cameron that it doesn’t sound strange, but different enough that it’s not boring. Michael said that he liked that name, but that he thought it was the “weirdest” name he had ever considered using (I think that by “weird” he meant “uncommon”). So I went onto the US Census website and looked up the data about US children’s names for the most recent year that they had posted. I was pretty surprised too that Camden was more common than Kolby, Eli, and Elijah (although not as common as Colby). That was all it took for Michael – it wasn’t too “weird” of a name, so Camden it was. And his middle name is after Michael’s brother (his brother, Alan, goes by his middle name, and his first name is really James), and for Michael’s mother’s father, James Albert McIntosh.

When we were looking for a name for Isaac, I really wanted a name that fit well with the other boys’ names. I felt like Kolby and Camden were both more modern sounding names, and Elijah was a name from the scriptures. And Kolby and Camden both started with consonants (and the same sound), and Eli was a vowel name. So, I wanted a name that went along with Eli’s name so that he wasn’t the odd one out. We liked Isaac, and that fit the bill: a scriptural name that started with a vowel. Also, I like the story of Abraham and Isaac in the scriptures and what great faith Isaac showed in both God and his father at such a young age. And I was excited to use the middle name, Steven, after my dad. So he is Isaac Steven Bradshaw.

And for our last little boy, we felt like we were running out of boy names that we both agreed on. (We had a whole list of possible girl names that never got used). So, we waited until a couple weeks after we had the ultrasound to decide on the final name. I liked Riley (I thought it was a nice name that ended in the same sound as Kolby’s name, and it is also a family name – but Michael doesn’t care for names that can be used for a boy or a girl, and Riley has become more and more popular as a girl’s name lately). We also liked the name Tyce, except I just didn’t feel like it fit well with the other boys’ names – it was only one syllable, and all of our other boys go by two-syllable names (I know, I get way too technical about this whole name-choosing thing, but I’ve got to use the names for the rest of my life, so I might as well pick something I really like). (And no, we didn’t like the idea of naming him Tyson and calling him Tyce). So, then I thought of my great, great grandfather’s name, Courtland. I like that name a lot, and Michael decided that he liked it too – he is planning on calling the baby ‘Court,’ but I think I’ll call him Courtland. (We talked about calling Camden ‘Cam’ too, but that hasn’t happened so far). The thing that I really had to convince Michael about was my idea for the middle names. Yes, I said names, not name. I really wanted to use both my brother’s names, and we are not planning on having another baby. So, I wanted to name the baby Courtland Matthew Aaron Bradshaw. Most people think that is weird, but I don’t really care what people think – we’ve had more than one person say they wouldn’t choose some of the names we picked for our boys, but they don’t have to go through pregnancy, labor, or raising any of our children, so I figure they don’t really get a say in the matter. :) Anyways, I was thinking about how it would be for him to have two middle names, and I was thinking that most of the time it wouldn’t really be a big deal. Lots of documents just ask for your middle initial, so that will be easy: Courtland M. Bradshaw. And for other things, like diplomas, they usually let you choose how your name appears, so that won’t be a problem. But this way he will get to be named after two wonderful uncles. So, even if people think it’s silly of me to want to give him an extra name, I think it will be a very nice name. Courtland Matthew Aaron Bradshaw.

(Oh, and I mentioned that Kolby called Eli ‘Jijah’ before he could pronounce the name correctly. It’s kind of funny to hear all the ways that the boys have pronounced each others’ names when they were little: Kolby called Eli ‘Jijah,’ and Eli called Kolby ‘Bo-bee,’ Eli called Camden ‘Mamen,’ and now Camden pronounces Isaac ‘Igaak.’ So, if you think that we should have chosen some different names for our kids, I guess it could always be worse: we could have had Bo-bee, Jijah, Mamen, and Igaak instead. :) We’ll see how Isaac ends up pronouncing Courtland after he starts talking).