Naming James

Naming babies seems to be my Achilles' heel.  Or, more specifically, naming baby girls is just plain difficult.  The entire pregnancy I assumed that I was having a girl, even though the ultrasound tech and the doctor almost let it slip twice that it was a boy.  ("You don't want to know the sex? Then quickly stop looking at the screen!" and "You have a baseball catcher based on how this baby is situated in there!")  It was just difficult to imagine going through a pregnancy and not coming away with a girl in the end, since that is what happened the first time around for us.

As with naming Alma, I spent a lot of time thinking about girl names for James (before he was born and we knew he was a he, obviously).  We started off with the list of names left over from Alma -- names like Penelope and Jacqueline.  But very early in the pregnancy the name Vivian popped into my head.  The entire pregnancy I couldn't move past Vivian, a name I had never considered -- and may have even actively disliked in the past -- but it seemed to fit the child we were expecting.


I didn't give any time to thinking about boy names because James has been James since Joshua and I first met.

James is named after his grandfather, Joshua's father who passed away when Joshua was nine years old.  Joshua's father went by Jimmy as a child and somewhere along the way went by Jim.  Joshua and his father share the same initials of JAC and we knew that we wanted to carry on the tradition.  Originally we thought that we would also wait for the third child to use those initials -- Joshua and his pop are both the third of four children -- but then we decided that if we were blessed with a son, regardless of birth order, he would get the title.

While pregnant with Alma, we confirmed with each other that we still wanted to name a boy James and keep up with the JAC tradition.  We spoke a bit about how I wanted to keep the boy's name as James and not go the nickname route.  Joshua disagreed, arguing that nicknames happen and we cannot fight it.  (Comically enough, he fought Alma's South Philly nick name of "Allie" tooth and nail.)  And we discussed at length a proper middle name that began with "A".  On the day Alma was born, we were telling some family members what Alma's name would have been if she were a boy and we both announced a different middle name.  Guess it wasn't fully decided at that point but we decided on Anchor as a middle name that day.

Once we became pregnant in 2011, we again checked in that James Anchor was our chosen boy's name and then never talked about it again.  Honestly, we may have mentioned it one other time in passing.  But I was so focused on girl names that we just didn't get into it.

So when James was born, he was easily named.  ... And then we proceeded to call him other names by mistake.  Baby Will and Baby Joey were heard more often than Baby James the first few weeks with infant James because those were names of babies we have been around recently and the names flowed out of our mouths more easily.  Eventually, with some practice for our sleep deprived brains, we got used to the ring of Baby James.  Of course, Alma is calling him Baby Buppee, I often refer to him as "Punky" (when it is just the two of us) and Joshua thinks that Jimmy is cute.  Poor James, we will call you something yet. 

The reasons we choose Anchor as a middle name:
* I love middle names that provide guidance or virtues.  Anchor means "a person or thing that can be relied on for support, stability, or security; mainstay."

* Joshua and I met while rock climbing and I have a background in sailing; both activities require anchors.

* I'll admit it: it just sounds cool.  Before I met Joshua, I daydreamed about naming future children Andrew Spyder, Jonathan Tyger and Erica Danger.

Since naming James, we have learned that the gospels of St. James are known for a focus on action over reverence, which is the core idea behind Joshua's work as a faith-based community organizer.  And the awesome gifts that we have received that are anchor-related are too much.  The old school sailor outfits and shirts that say things like "Mommy's First Mate" are just too cute!!