Choosing a name

Leo has been Leo to me long before he was born.

When I was in high school I swore that the name of my first-born son would be Luke. But slowly over the years that faded. Sometime when Talon and I were engaged I randomly heard the name Leo and thought to myself that I really liked that name. I made a mental note and went about my life, but the name continued to have a strong presence in my mind from then on. I thought about that name often as time went on and this time I knew for real that that name would be the name of my son.

I also knew I was going to have a boy first. I felt a connection to Leo long before he was born. When Talon and I were living in Texas I knew I wanted to have a baby soon because I knew Leo wanted to be here with us. When I got pregnant I knew it was a boy before we actually knew it was a boy and I knew it was Leo. When we did actually find out it was a boy I knew it was Leo.

Right after we did find out the gender we immediately began discussing names and Leo was at the top of the list for both of us as well as one other name. It was a very different experience than you often hear about when naming a baby. It came soooo easily to us. Within the hour of finding out we had our top two names. Just for the fun of it we discussed several names but it was always those two names we were choosing between.

But for me, as much as I liked the second name, I knew his name would be Leo. But I didn't want to make that decision on my own, I wanted Talon to be an equal part of it so I didn't tell him how strongly I felt about it.

I was really surprised one day when Talon and I went on a walk and he told me that the instant we found out our baby was a boy he had the second name come very, very strongly to him in his mind. Almost like he knew that that name would be the name of our son. And honestly, I LOVED (and still do) that other name so it didn't upset me at all, I just thought it was odd that we both felt so strongly about opposing names.

Throughout the rest of my pregnancy we discussed only those two names. Talon is the sweetest and always told me that ultimately the decision would be mine, since I would be doing all the "hard work," but I still wanted him to feel right about the name, especially since he felt so strongly about the other name. I didn't push it, just waited patiently and knew we would figure it out.

I was either 35 or 36 weeks when we took our birthing classes. In one of the classes the instructor was going over exactly what to expect at the hospital and included how after the baby was born the nurses would make a name card to put on the bassinet. Talon leaned over to me and said,

"And it will read L-e-o."

And it was the sweetest moment honestly. In the moment I just smiled and nodded but brought it up to Talon on the way home and asked him how he came to that decision and he said he didn't know, just that it felt right.

And it really did just feel so right. And it still does.