How we named our son

by Matthew D
(Cleveland, Ohio, USA)

We were having a really difficult time coming up with a name for our son.

We went through a ton of ideas.

I liked the name Icarus for a long time, however it has a bad connotation (Icarus is the boy who flies too high towards the sun in the tale of 'Icarus and Daedulus.' His home-made wings melt and he falls and dies.)

I didn't want a negative connotation like that so I passed over that idea.

His mother liked the name Jose, in honor of her father.

However my son is only one quarter Hispanic and we thought Jose might be a bit awkward.

We considered Joseph (my middle name) however I wasn't crazy about the name Joe.

We also considered the name Aiden. I liked the name and didn't know anyone else with it, but rejected it because it is also the name of a terrible band - lol.

We took a couple months off thinking about it but it was quickly coming up.

When she was about 8 months pregnant we knew we had to decide.

Then one day I came up with Aiden Joseph as the first and middle name. Joseph as a middle name both honored her father and also carried on the tradition of having Joseph as a middle name as both my father and I do.

I really liked the name Aiden and got over caring about the terrible band of the same name. Also then we could call him AJ.

When we came up with the name we thought it was quite a bit different.

Many of our relatives had never even heard of anyone with the same name and I only knew of one kid with the same name.

Little did we realize Aiden had become the most popular boys name of the decade.

Regardless I still really like the name.


Thankfully his mother liked my suggestion also and we were able to announce his name at the baby shower, roughly one month before he was born.

We have been really happy with our choice and often call him AJ :) .

We only have to call him Aiden Joseph when he's getting in trouble - lol.

It was a lot of pressure to pick a name, but in the end we realized that we were gonna love him like crazy no matter what name he had.