And He Shall Be Called...

So, we have a baby boy. Now for the big question, what is his name? This was hard. We had way more girl names we both agreed on than boy names. Our boy list mainly consisted of boy names that neither of us hated, but there weren’t many we both loved. The easy part was ruling out names.

This little face was not a Henry or a Milo. Thank God, it was not a LeRoy.

“What?!? I’m not a Rodney?!?!”

Not Matt Jr. Not Rocco. (Rocco and Rocky together for daycare? Hahaha)

By Sunday afternoon (Oct.9) Baby Core needed a decision. The final running consisted of Benji, P.J. Teddy, and Rudy. We both liked the idea of having a ‘full’ name for the nickname (Katy is Katherine, Matt is Matthew) and Theodore wasn’t sitting well. We also knew Teddy could be short for Edward but Emily’s little brother had an Eddie a few weeks before. (Wouldn’t it be funny if Charlie and Emily’s kids had cousins Eddie and Teddy?) We also thought the kid would shorten ‘Teddy’ to ‘Ted’ when he became too cool for school and Ted and Teddy gave me 2 different mental images. Down to 3.

The problem with P.J.? We weren’t digging any 'P' names for the 'P' to stand for. Too many Uncle Patricks in the house already. Down to 2.

Matt had too hard of a time getting Rudy Ruettiger out of his mind but I thought once we named the baby, he’s associate it with baby, not Notre Dame. We both like Ruby and Ruthie for girls so we tried to swing the "Ru" for a boy but…. just wasn’t happening. Benji was looking good. Benjamin worked as a full name. Middle names? I was pushing ‘Matthew’ since Baby was born on Matt’s bday but Matt was not digging it. He wasn’t big on the, ‘I’m so awesome, I’ll name this baby after myself’ thing (even though I don’t think that’s how people view it). He suggested Oliver and even wanted it for a first name so he could call the kid Ollie but I couldn’t go there for 2 reasons.

This little Oregon Ollie

 And my favorite book from the St. Columbkille library

Soooo… Benjamin Oliver or Benjamin Matthew? (B.O. and B.M. – yes, we did notice this but no, I do not consider my initials to be K.E.)

This little face is definitely a Benjamin Oliver.

Oliver really turned out to be a perfect middle name. First, I love Olivia but its rapidly becoming #1 on the baby names popularity lists and any little girl we may have is all but common. We both are big fans of a little girl named ‘Olive’ but my concern is that our chubby genes and a food name would equal ridicule. As you may know, Matt and I met at Hummel Day Camp and one of the things that brought us together was shared amusement of our favorite camper P.J. (also a Patrick). This little kid was scrawny, naughty, sassy and smart-alecky but he was hilarious. He was rehearsing that summer for a role as an orphan boy in the musical, ‘Oliver,’ and after witnessing one of these little rehearsals, Matt and I were quick to grab the Choco-Tacos. 1 Taco for 1 performance (standing on top of a picnic table and belting out the words). “FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD! HOT SAUSAGE AND MUSTARD!” Sooooo hilarious. (It was an added bonus that P.J.’s mom was a hippie who loved Big Head Todd and the Monsters). P.J. spent most of his week at camp with the counselors and special privileges (that sounds gross but I mean popsicles, access to the shack and the ‘Chief’ award - okay, it still sounds gross.) and now, ‘Oliver’ always reminds Matt and I of the summer we met~ the place where the glimmer of Benji began.

So, Benji it is! Matt calls him Banjo.

“There was a mommy who had a babe and Banjo was his name-o. 

B-A-N-J-O, 

B-A-N-J-O, 

B-A-N-J-O, and Banjo was his name-o.” – a Katy Core original

Other terms of endearment have included…

Bingo

Benji-O

Bingo Bango Banjo

Banchee

B-A-N-J-O (bee ay en jay oh)

Benji-Man

I know its B.O. but his initials are B.C. or B.O.C (the stupid Board of Directors I work with apparently laughed at his initials being B.O. for 10 minutes during a meeting in my absence. Lame.)

I know ‘Benji Core’ has a slightly similar sound to the words ‘Bungee Cord’

But, I know that I can’t imagine Benji by any other name. Look at this little face….

Since Bingo has come up in this post, I will leave you with this. I can’t remember what I was watching (probably Wendy Williams – which I was initially forced to watch due to the lack of programming at 2am when nursing – which is actually pretty funny) and they were showing a clip of Drag Queen Bingo. The caller (and most flamboyant Queen) yelled out to the players, “It wasn’t malignant…” and the crowd responded a very enthusiastic, “Its benign!” B-9. Get it?!? HAHA!  Who knew Drag Queens loved Bingo?