Background info about the name

Steph and I were sitting here talking on the couch, accompanied by the rhythmic sound of the breast pump (TMI, I know - please refer to my earlier comment regarding pregnancy destroying any dignity/inhibitions you previously had) and we realized that there is some background information missing in this whole blog. So here is where I will answer the nagging question on everyone's mind (or at least on the minds of those of you who don't know) - how did we get the name Theo Jonathan in the first place?

Okay, it's not like we named him Sputnik or anything (props to Chris and Christine Tang--that's their joke, not mine), but the name "Theo" still isn't all that common. Coincidentally, that was one of the reasons we picked it. Here's a little bit of our philosophy of naming for your reading pleasure.

When we found out we were pregnant, it was really important to us that we had some element of namesaking involved. However, looking down the lines of both of our families, there are several shady characters that we quite frankly wanted to avoid namesaking. Add to that the usual naming dilemmas that parents face ("I knew a guy in grade 1 whose name was Billy Bob and he was the kid who never wiped his nose") and my extreme pickiness when it comes to names, and you've got a bit of a problem. Fortunately for us, that problem was short-lived.

If there are two people who have made huge impacts on both of our lives it's been our respective maternal grandfathers. Steph's grandpa Roy was truly the full measure of a gentleman. Even though I never got a chance to meet him, the amount of sheer respect and esteem that he is held in to this day throughout her family is amazing. Dashingly handsome, quiet but strong, and a great husband and father--what else could anyone ask for? That, friends, is what it truly means to be a man. But we didn't want to name him Roy, so we went with the middle name: Theo. Add to that the uniqueness and character in that name (it's from the Greek meaning "divine gift"), and we had a winner. In fact, we both liked the name so much that right from the start there was never any doubt about it. That was going to be his name.

That only left his middle name. I mentioned above that the other person who has made an impact on me was my grandpa. Here's where I start treading into some potentially dangerous ground. Without getting into too much sordid family history, it can be noted that my grandpa wasn't exactly the greatest father in the world to my mom and her brothers, nor the greatest husband to my grandma. However, for all of his shortcomings (and who doesn't have those?), he was the best grandpa a kid could ever ask for, at least in my mind (which was all that mattered to me when I was little). Yes, he had a rough side, but it wasn't one that I knew except from a distance. My grandpa had a huge impact on my life, and it was important to me that we namesaked him. My grandpa's name was John; lengthen that and you get Theo's middle name.

As a point of order and perhaps one of those "circle of life" things (oh no, now I've got you all singing, don't I?), my grandpa died last year on February 2. A year and three days later, our little Theo Jonathan was born. So every year we'll take the time to be sad about losing grandpa, but we'll also rejoice in the miracle of life that Theo represents. Very fitting, I have to say.

See you all again soon.