Ben's Name

Several people have asked us how Benjamin got his name... Since we didn't know if he was going to be a boy or girl, we had one name for each. Our girl name was pretty easy (still a secret in case we need it later!), but we were really struggling with a boy name. Benjamin was actually the first name I thought of, but I didn't think that was a thorough enough process for making sure it was the right name. We used a baby name website to generate a long list of names, and then slowly took turns eliminating ones we didn't like. We ended up with a short list, and Benjamin was still on it! We knew we wanted to use a family name for the middle name, and the one we chose went really well with Benjamin. It was settled!

Ben's middle name is Arthur, after Peter's maternal grandfather, Arthur John Carlson. We weren't telling anyone our baby names, but when we were in Virginia over Labor Day we decided to tell Pete's grandfather since his health was failing and we really wanted to be sure he knew he would have a namesake. During our visit, we told him that if we had a boy, his middle name would be Arthur. Grandpa's response? "I've always hated that name!" We couldn't help but laugh. We are so glad we told him, since in early December, Grandpa passed away. I love having that story about him learning of his namesake, and I love that a little bit of him will live on in Benjamin!