I am constantly asked what we are going to name #4. My answer is almost always, “Oh, he’ll come with a name tag, so I’ll let you know after he is born.” We aren’t being secretive … we just have no idea. All the boys were this way. Ricky was going to be Alexander from years before he was born until a couple of months before he was actually due. Billy’s name was probably going to be Thomas until about 2 months before he was born. Kevin was set on Rusty’s name being James until we were in the delivery room and he looked at his new son and at his haggard wife and said, “Okay, you can name him Rusty.” So we don’t make any declarations or buy anything with a name on it because we know that we won’t know until we see that little face.
We do have rules. We are mocked quite a bit for these rules, but we stand firm. Just to name a few: we like gender specific names, we like a long name with an accompanying nickname, and we like old fashioned, easy to spell names. With a fourth boy coming (something we never fathomed), we are faced with the dilemma of does the nickname need to end in a Y again. Could we have a Jeff or Greg? We haven’t decided yet, but Ricky has. While he enjoys making up names for the baby (“Let’s name him Heart!”), he is convinced that the baby’s name needs to end in a Y.
I will throw names out every once in a while, just to remind him that a new brother is coming, and to see if I can get a good reaction. Billy always protests the name, no matter what it is, and tells me that his baby brother’s name is Rusty. He hasn’t quite caught on yet. But Ricky usually plays back. Today, though, the boys were watching “Go, Diego, Go” so I walked through the room and asked if we should name #4 Diego. Ricky looked away from the tv, gave me a stern look and said, “No, Momma. Diego does not end in a Y.” And then went right back to watching his show. I guess it is back to the drawing board!