Oh Henry...where did we come up with Henry? We've had lots of people ask that, and honestly, people either love or hate the name.
I guess I should start by saying that we did not use any of the "extra names" we had picked out for the twins. Their naming process is a post for a whole different day!
When we found out we were expecting again (a huge surprise!), we began throwing around name ideas. We could not agree on anything. Honestly, with the twins we agreed immediately. I don't know why it was so hard this time.
Before we knew if it was a boy or girl, we were trying to come up with names for both. For a girl, I really liked Marleigh, Reagan, Rileigh (my niece's name now, but spelled Riley), Avery (but it's been used so much lately). Dustin really didn't have any girl names he liked. I settled on Reagan being my favorite, I could just see us calling her "Ray" for short and thought that was cute. We were going to go with Reagan Jane, Jane after my grandma.
Well, once we had our gender party and found out we were having a boy, we shifted to just looking at boy's names. We were so far off from each other's ideas. I liked Owen, Parker, and Cooper. Dustin liked Troy. We both vetoed all of those names. We did agree we wanted to use Paul as a middle name to honor Dustin's uncle, one of the kindest, giving, humble people we had ever met.
I remember going through name after name and not agreeing. We finally were just sitting there in the living room and were at a loss....and Henry popped in my head. I said, "I like Henry". Dustin immediately said "I like Henry too, let's name him Henry." It was truly as simple as that once we agreed on something. Henry Paul he would be! We decided not to tell the name because honestly, I knew we'd get feedback and I didn't want to hear it. Once it's his name, what can people say then?
The response to his name has been mixed, to be perfectly honest. I don't think my mom liked it. I think it's cute and it suits him. It is becoming more popular again. I think it's a good, strong name, yet still cute. Everyone at the hospital loved it.
Carson and Emilynn never questioned his name. From the beginning they call him Henry, as best they can. Carson has called him "Hemmy" from the start. Emilynn calls him " Baby Hengry". Meme calls him "poor Henry" due to all he puts up with having a two, now three year old brother and sister.
The funny thing about not telling his name in the beginning was, once we decorated the nursery, I put an "H" above his crib. Well, when someone would stop by, I'd run take the "H" down and throw it in the closet. Finally, I decided to just leave it up. My grandma and a few others stopped by and I'd say, "I finished the nursery." I usually got an "Oh really?" response but NO ONE asked to see it!
I was wanting someone to go in there and get a hint that his name started with an "H."
On the morning we went to deliver, my mom was asking couldn't we just tell her the name since she was not coming to the hospital. I told her about his initial over his bed and she ran to see it. She was perplexed to find an "H". She joked that maybe it was another "Hunter". She guessed "Hamilton", but nothing else. She was a bit off the mark! Haha!
Oh, and since we've named Henry, we found out that Dustin's great-grandfather was named Henry Thomas. There are a few distant Henry's on my dad's side too. So, Henry IS a family name, along with his middle name, Paul. I like family names and all of our children have family names somewhere in their names. It was funny because we went to Dustin's family reunion over the summer, and a great-aunt said, "Finally, someone named a child after grandpa!". Dustin and I got a kick out of that because it wasn't intentional at first...but we did!
So, there you have it, Henry Paul! Or as my grandpa calls him, "H.P." :-)
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