The H Factor

I never thought I would be one of those families that has some themed system for naming their children.  I don't think there is anything wrong with it, I just never thought that I would be coordinated enough to pull it off.  So imagine my surprise when people keep asking me if we are going to "stick with the H's", because, shocker though this may be, we did not do it on purpose.  It is kind of fun the way it has turned out, though.

My parents did have a system for naming their children. As I understand it, my dad picked the names for the boys, and chose the names of his two best friends. My mother picked the names for the girls, and picked names of friends that she liked (the names, not the friends. Of course she liked her friends.)  She wanted to go with Patricia for either my sister or I, but my dad said no. So, we ended up with Peter, Daniel, Amy, and Michelle.  Then they each gave us a middle name beginning with an H, perhaps because both of my parents have middle names beginning with an H (once my mom moved her maiden name to her middle name, that is). For middles then we were Hurn, Helaman, Heather, and Halley.

Now to my first pregnancy. We found out it was a girl, and Devin wanted to name her Heather.  I was not so keen on the idea.  Not at all. But I have always liked my sister's middle name, and so we agreed on that, and I changed the spelling to reflect my mother's name as well: Vickie.  Thus, we had Hallie.

When we were pregnant with Hanna, we knew that if it was a boy we would name him David Jonathon.  When we found out we were having another girl, we were in serious name trouble. Devin brought Heather up again, and again, I was not so keen.  We struggled.  Then one day I was talking to my friend Hannah on the phone, and after hanging up I asked Devin what he thought of that name.  He liked it.  Yippee! Baby girl had a name.  It never entered my mind that we now had two H's, until other people mentioned it.  As for the spelling on that one, one day Devin was practicing writing it to see how it flowed (he's a funny man) and I noticed that he kept spelling it H-a-n-n-a, with no 'h' on the end.  When I asked him why he was spelling it like that, he informed me that hello, that is how Hanna is spelled.  I asked him what happened to the 'h' on the end.  He said there is no 'h' on the end. I told him that it is MY friend whose name is Hannah, and there is most definitely an 'h' on the end. We ended up looking the name up in a name book, and lo and behold, you can spell it both ways. Go figure.  Thus, Hanna, and our second H, was born.

Along came this pregnancy, and yet again, we knew that if it was a boy we would name him David Jonathon.  (I'm actually sort of beginning to miss this person that has never existed, my little David Jonathon.  Where is he?)  Devin had the temerity to again bring up Heather, if we found out it was a girl.  Now it has been four years that he has been talking about "his Heather".  Four years is a long time to say no to your husband.  I began to think of the baby as Heather, in my head. Then one day I made the mistake of telling Devin that.  That's when I knew the discussion was over, and so, slightly crossing my fingers that it would be a boy - if only for the David Jonathon vs. Heather bit - we went to the ultrasound.

I couldn't stop laughing when they told me we were having another girl.  Heather.

That's how we ended up with three H's, and why, if someday we do have a boy, his name WILL NOT begin with an H.  But, if it satisfies you, he will have the same initials as Devin.  Happy? Well, I am.