I had a hard time naming Sawyer. Although I do like to retain an air of mystery by not sharing a baby’s name until he is born, this time, I was not playing coy: I didn’t know either.
Rookie Dad Alec and I started off with no ideas at all. When I asked if people thought it was ok to “steal” a baby name from a friend, you all weighed in. We ended up with lot of opinions on my original question, but also a new list of 86 more boy names. Yes EIGHTY SIX MORE BOY NAMES!
I created a google doc of “names we don’t hate” and by the time I was eight months pregnant, we had narrowed it down to eleven names with two front-runners. Unfortunately we hadn’t decided when baby brother joined our family a few weeks early.
In the hospital, we alternated calling him each of the two favored names. Our families were restless and inquisitive. We flipped a coin.*
* We didn’t really flip a coin. We chose Sawyer because it is literary (Mark Twain), ends with R, has a rugged meaning, was a television character (yes, LOST!), and has a slight association with Australia. And also because I had just seen this article predicting that my existing sons’ names were about to explode with popularity so I stopped trying so hard to be clever.
Naming a baby is hard. I love Sawyer. Such a sweet baby.
I love this article! I also love his name.
I love the name, totally get your process and adore the chalkboard photos. It’s a lot of responsibility — you did well.
I’m having a hard time as well. My mom told us to come up with at least 10 names and then pick one when she’s born, so that’s what we’re sticking to. However, we’ve added another 5 more names, adding to the confusion. Oh well, 2 more weeks to go and we shall see…
Such an adorable name for a little boy, and I LOVED the photos you took to tell the story!
I have a kiddo named Sawyer
It is apparently a hard word for him to say, and it sounds like his name is Doy-ya when he says it. We call him Sawyer the Destroyer (he’s 2) and Dino-Sawyer. Still love the name!
When I was pregnant, my foetus nickname was Melchior as one of the three wise men… because he was due to january (is it correct?). But, I was sure that “Alistair” will be his first name. It’s scottish for Alexandre (Alexander). In France, it’s very rare so he’s exceptional!!! I call him Ali because he can’t say it yet (“Teh-Teh-Teh). I love my baby boy’s name! Voilà!
I can’t believe I forgot to mention the one thing that pushed us over the edge name-wise! We watched the Paul Rudd movie “I Love You, Man” in the hospital and the characters sing the song “Tom Sawyer”. Done and done.
And you should go see it immediately if you haven’t.
I was pregnant with my Sawyer when my husband was deployed and watched 5 seasons of Lost in a two-month period
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I love Lost’s Sawyer! He immediately popped into mind when I heard the name. What’s not to love about Sawyer?
Ha! We too picked a name due to literary reference and Lost: Charlie (and the Chocolate Factory or of Drive Shaft fame!). We joke that if we have a second boy, we can call him Desmond and train him to call Charlie “Brotha!”