Declan: Defined

After I snuggled Declan for a few minutes, my doctor asked me what we were naming him. I said his name and she looked confused and asked me to spell it. I thought that was weird because Declan is a common name! My mom kept bugging me to call my siblings and tell them I had a baby. I wasn't really in a hurry to do that and didn't think it was something that needed to be done within the first hour after birthing him. Eventually I got around to calling everyone and (with the exception of my sister, Michelle, who has a nephew named Declan) they were all confused by the name. I had to spell it, tell them how to pronounce it, and then spell it again. Sam and I were baffled. Although we don't personally know anyone named Declan, we were both very familiar with the name. We thought we were giving him a normal, easy name and yet everyone was confused!

When we were initially looking for a name, I went through a long list and narrowed it down to around 20 names and then over the next few days we narrowed it down to less than ten. We had an Excel file where I was matching first names to middle names. There were a few weeks where I thought for sure the baby's name would be Elliott. Eventually, Elliott just seemed wrong. Other names that didn't make the cut: Blake, Warren, Sawyer, Pierce, Rhett, and Reid. I went back to the list and started thinking more about the name Declan.

Declan is an Irish name. It was the 143rd most popular name in the United States last year. It has a few meanings but my favorites are "full of goodness" and "man of prayer." The more I thought about the name, the more it grew on me. It seems to fit perfectly with our family. As I heard Alex and Edison talk about Baby Declan, I was even more assured that it was the name we should give him. During my labor and after he was born, I was talking to him and calling him by name. I think it definitely fits him.

We gave him the middle name of Neil. It was my last name for 19 years and is now my middle name. Sam had to convince me to share it. Declan Neil seems like such a good match that I wrote only that on his birth certificate application. I was proofreading it the next day and realized I had left off his last name completely. I am glad I checked the form one last time before mailing it in! Sam probably would not have appreciated me dropping his last name.

Despite whatever confusion this child will encounter due to us giving him a "weird" name, we are glad he joined our family. Hopefully he won't hate us and no one will call him "Duck-lynn." Now I just need to get better at calling the right child his own name. It seems like everyone is getting called "Edison" these days.