How We Named Shane

Last week I shared how we named our sweet little one year old Keith Brooks. You can read about it here. This week I wanted to share how we picked out Shane's name because he was named in the same thoughtful, meaningful, and purposeful way. We love our kids names and spent so much time picking them that it brings me great joy to write and share about our little Scottish named boys.

Just like with Keith, we kept Shane's name a secret. We were much more hush hush with Shane's potential names that we were with Keith because he was our first and we had the whole lot of boys names to pick from. We waited until September, when we found out Shane was a boy, to start talking names. I thought it would be so easy to name our son but I was quite surprised that Brian and I were very selective and had extremely different taste. Brian being an officer and myself a teacher, we wanted a name we had not encountered before. Seeing as how I have taught so many students ( I worked as a part time substitute over three years) and Brian works with people all day, every day, we had quite a task ahead of us.

Just like with Keith, we did share the middle name. Shane Brian was named after his father, Brian, just like Brian's middle name is after his father. I liked the idea of a family name and we settled upon that fairly early on. For a moment I wanted a Johnson name because I figured the last name being from the male side the middle name should be from my side but in the end we decided to go with Brian. It was a great start for us to pick the first name which was our big challenge.

We wanted a name that was easy to spell and pronounce but as I said before one that was not commonly used. Brian prefers shorter names and I like names that don't lend well to nicknames. I guess I wanted people using the name I picked or, if a nickname was given, I wanted it to be what everyone called our son and I wanted to love it just as much as I loved the legal name. I also really valued the meaning of a name. That shortened our list. Then we narrowed the names down to Scottish heritage because of my family roots. We also double checked that the name did not rhyme with swear words or could not be twisted and teased. We had a long list of opposite names and at the start of January we started to narrow names down.

We really liked Zachery and Sean because Zachery means God remembers and Sean means God is gracious which we both felt were beautiful meanings. While reviewing the list I saw that Shane was a variant of Sean and had the same meaning so I added it to a list of about 50 names and from there we narrowed our list down to Zachery, Shane and Sean. I was not sold on Zachery because of the nickname factor and because it was one I had heard a lot lately. However, we went with our list. 

I had complications with Shane at the end of my pregnancy and was called back to the hospital after a doctor appointment to be induced with him. Brian met me at the hospital and  as we sat there waiting for labor to start we decided that Sean was the name for our son. God was so gracious to find the complication that could have resulted in a still born so we decided that Sean Brian would be a reminder of the gracious gift that was our son. After Shane was born he was taken directly up to the NICU. I got to give his head a quick kiss and he was whisked away with Brian at his side. I sat and waited downstairs while my husband and baby were upstairs. Nearly two hours later I was taken up to see my baby boy and hold him for the first time.

When I was wheeled into his little room in the NICU I remember a mix of emotions flooding my heart. Frustration that so many others had held my baby before me, panic that I did not know what was wrong with my baby, relief and thanks that he was alive, and pure joy and anticipation just being able to finally hold him. Brian looked at me in that moment and said "his name is Shane because I have been looking at him and that is what he looks like." Sean was a wrong fit and in truth Brian could have named him anything at that point but we went downstairs to tell a lot of waiting family members and friends that we had a son: Shane Brian. His name means God is gracious and it was a perfect fit for our boy.

How did you name your kids?