What’s in a Middle Name?

I really don’t think Scott and I are indecisive people.  But we just can’t decide on a middle name for Henry!  Each of our other children’s names came to us easily and quickly, and we agreed on them with no reservations.  But for Henry, we have been up and down a list of “favorites,” deciding and then wavering, because none of the choices ring true for us like the others.

William’s name was the easiest.  I remember standing in Kinko’s waiting for Scott to make copies and it just hit me.  If we had a boy someday, he would be William (after my late uncle, Big Bill, who was indescribably special to me).  I wasn’t even pregnant at the time, but as we pondered our future over the Kinko’s copy machine, Scott and I decided that “William Scott” was the perfect name for our would-be son.

Edmund’s took a little longer – meaning a few hours -- perhaps we were distracted by a more exotic location than Kinko’s (we were in Greece when we found out we were expecting, and we started a list of names as we traveled by plane and bus to Romania).   It was too early to know the gender, so we had a list for each.  Once the name Edmund came up for a boy, we never turned back.  Most people ask us if Edmund is a family name.  We admit, it’s unusual, but no, we just liked it (and yes, I also have a fondness for the character Edmund in the Chronicles of Narnia).  His middle name is Michael, after my father.  And so we have William Scott and Edmund Michael, two strong names that complement each other well.

And now here we are. . . we fell in love with the name Henry long before we knew he was indeed a “he,”  and we are certain it fits beautifully with William and Edmund.  But just as easily as his first name came to us (this time in the car here in Philly, if you’re interested), his middle name has eluded us.  Edmund (age 2) has struggled recently to learn his own full name (mistakenly calling himself “Edmund Scott Shall,” in his strong desire to be just like William and Daddy), and I have often wondered if it would have been easier if we had just given them all the same middle name.  But the narcissism of George Foreman comes to mind when I consider having three boys with the middle name “Scott,” so in the end, I do think it’s best for each to have his own.  I'm sure we'll decide in the next 6 weeks, but for now Henry’s middle name is a mystery.