Thursday, November 1, 2012

It Lasts a Lifetime

Your name, that is.

Ugh, the agony of naming this cute little guy.


Gunner.
Easy enough.
We knew we'd call him Gunner, but what would his full name be?
What would his birth certificate say?

If you read my earlier post, you know that John Wayne and I were in disagreement over what his middle name should be?
I wanted Hammer.
He wanted William.

I honestly wasn't loving either one.
I LOVED the idea of using Hammer, but didn't love how it sounded.

A couple of weeks before he was born, we came up with the idea of naming him Augustus Hammer Golding and calling him Gunner.  I liked that, a lot.
So we kept that name to ourselves, but I think in the back of both of our minds, Augustus Hammer was the name.

So Gunner is born and immediately, the name issue starts bugging me.

People ask what his middle name is, we tell them that we're not sure yet.

We send out our announcement texts, emails and FB posts simply as "Gunner."

Every time our room is without visitors, we look at each other and say, "Well, what's it going to be?"

We sent the birth certificate lady away on several occasions.
Finally when it came down to that being the last item to check off on our discharge sheet, we did it, we wrote down "Augustus Hammer Golding."

I then called the pediatricians office to make Gunner's first appointment.
They ask me his name and I tell them Gunner.
They ask me his middle name and I immediately panic and feel the tears welling up.
What have we done, we've set this poor child up for a lifetime of name confusion.

I get off the phone and the tears start rolling.
John Wayne tells me, yes, you probably should have told them that his name is Augustus.
That's when I knew we had to change it, his name just needed to be Gunner.

So Gunner it is.
But then there was still that issue of the middle name.
At that moment I'm pretty sure I could have won the middle name argument with whatever name I wanted.  John Wayne gave me that 100% go ahead for Hammer.  Like many arguments in my life, once I had the satisfaction of knowing that I could have it my way, it didn't matter quite as much to me.  That and I still didn't like how Gunner Hammer flowed, well really, didn't flow. So...

Welcome to the world Gunner William Golding.

We've been complimented numerous times on what a nice name he has, so that makes me feel good.  That and knowing that we hopefully helped him avoid a lifetime of name confusion.

{And yes, I've found myself calling him "GW".  We call the Little Lady "T" and well "G" is just too close to "T", so "GW" it is.  John Wayne, you win.}

6 comments:

Krulls in Haiti said...

Well done! He has a nice strong name, one that fits a little guy, but is a man's name too. Love it!

Lori Hollis said...

I love it and the story!

Anonymous said...

I agree, I think its a nice name!

mer@lifeat7000feet said...

I love his name! It's very strong and very original (though I do love Augustus because of Lonesome Dove!)

My son is John William and we've always called him Will, but I really wish we had just named him Will to begin with. The reason we didn't is because we couldn't agree on a middle name! Funny, huh?

I've sort of wanted to officially change it for years now because it is confusing at the doctor's office and on the first few days of school when folks call him John...BUT my dad died a few years ago and his name was John so now I'm glad I never changed it because my son bears my father's name. You're right...it lasts a lifetime.

Mark said...

I think Gunner William is great!!! It has a nice sound to it. Naming a kid is alot of pressure!!
Christina

Lauren said...

Hey! So I found your blog through Kelly Hamilton and was clicking around and stumbled on this post...I just had a little boy and he has a CRAZY name and we are running into ALL sorts of issues (or fights) between my husband and I! His name is Hugh Moss Comer Train, IV - family name obviously, but they ALL go by Comer...well my husband puts on ALL legal documents just Comer. That makes me nuts because its NOT his legal name! ...but hubby Comer hates their first name - hugh so refuses to use it. UGH! Why does it have to be so complicated!??!?! ...alright! Longest comment ever but I cant wait to follow your blog! I just added you to my reader :)
-Lauren
www.talkofthetrains.com