Our long-awaited ultrasound was this week. I wrangled Katie and Zac in the waiting room while Jen's belly was irradiated.
Jen soon walked out with a strip of ultrasound printouts, the last pair of which featured little arrows pointing to the undeniable fact that our pending bundle of joy is going to be another boy.
"Aww!" Katie moaned dramatically. "But I wanted a little sister!"
She seemed on the verge of ordering Jen back into the examining room to straighten things out.
The other women in the waiting room were quite entertained by Katie's slightly less than enthusiastic response to the news. Zac seemed oblivious, but I'm sure he was cheering inside, in his own sneaky way. Jen seemed genuinely surprised. I just shrugged.
"Figures," I said.
Every omen Jen could dream up pointed to us having a baby girl. Both of us even had rather odd dreams about a mysterious second daughter. We had a girl's name set: Elizabeth. On the other hand, neither of us could stop ourselves from referring to the baby as a "he." And one day, a couple of weeks ago, Jen got exasperated at Zac and exclaimed, "Alex!"
We both froze. Where did that come from?
Now, I've long ago given up my dream of having four daughters. (I've since realized that any number of kids over two represents some manner of dementia.) But more notably, I'd recently been thinking that a second boy would somehow "fit" better than a second girl.
A girl would have sandwiched poor Zac between two sisters, which could conceivably amplify all those "middle child syndrome" issues. And who knows how the current princess of the household would ultimately deal with having a new, pink-wearing pretender in the picture? On the other hand, a boy — much closer in age to Zac than to Katie — would guarantee Zac a playmate or evenly matched rival, yet allow Katie to retain her tyranical rule over her fellow little people.
I pulled Katie aside in the hospital to give her a brief outline of the New World Order, and her mood immediately improved.
A son.
Now, once again, we find ourselves flailing about for a name.
It's weird enough that Zachary will someday learn that his very identity was a mystery a mere week before his arrival. Now his little brother may be in the same boat.
I think we've given up hope on Iain. Our families would never spell it right, and it doesn't really work alongside Katie and Zac anyway. Or at least, I don't think so. So our new list of possibilities is as follows:
- Alexander: This is the current top candidate, in part because after we discussed it, Jen just started using it. I like the 'A' name in contrast to Zachary, and it meets my unreasonable three-syllables-or-more and nickname requirements. I have a cousin named Alexander, which is probably the only complicating factor.
- Nicholas: This one made the last shortlist. Jen has always been quite fond of this name, although an old crush on a balding, potbellied former UH Hilo student of the same name might be a part of it. I like that it's traditional, and not too short, but while Jen likes the name "Nicky" for short, I don't.
- Aaron: Also from the last shortlist. Of all we've identified so far, it seems to flow best with our last name. And heck, if we're going for 'A to Z' you can't get much more 'A.' But, it's short, and what would the nickname be? Ron?
- Christopher: If we're going traditional, I like this one better than Nicholas, and "Chris" better than "Nicky." But picking a name because it's not as bad as another one is probably not the best strategy.
- Dylan: This is a wholly unexpected "hell no" survivor from the last shortlist. Turns out, I don't dislike it as much as I used to. Heck, I like Bob Dylan. The only problem is it's shorter than I'd like, and the likely nicknames aren't that great.
I'm taking any and all suggestions, from family, friends, coworkers, and complete strangers. My mom has suggested some that we've pondered, including Andrew or Anthony, and Jeremy or Jonathan.
And then there's Alton...
Chances are, like Zac, we're going to be debating names right up until we enter the delivery room, and we won't know until we look our new son in the face exactly who he really is.
As for middle names? We've got some ideas. Since both Katie and Zac have Japanese and Hawaiian names beginning with M and K (just like their dad), that's probably the pattern we'll follow. On the Japanese side, Dad's promised some input. As for the Hawaiian name? Well, we could always pick another from our Hilo days. Kekuanaoa? Kanoelehua? Kanilehua?
Or how about Kekalahea?
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