What's in a Name?

Some of you avid Camden Nguyen blog readers might remember an early post called "What's in a Name?" in which I detailed our reasoning for his name. The question, "How did you come up with the name?" is a common question and I thought I would address it again for Ethan's name. You can review the post for definitions of our criteria, but here's a brief summary. Note that our selection didn't need to pass all of our criteria, but most:

1. "Don't make me spell it!"
   
2. "Multiple Pronunciations"
   
3. "You talkin' to me?"
   
4. "Sound Check"
   
5. "Good Initials"

"Don't make me spell it!" Try it. E-T-H-A-N. I suppose there's a chance that someone might spell it E-T-H-E-N, but I don't think that's a common spelling. Check.

"Multiple Pronunciations" Does Ethan match with the numerous mispronunciations of our last name? Ethan Noo-jen...Ethan Nah-guy-en...Ethan En-guy-en...Ethan Nah-gee-en...and ultimately Ethan Win. We think it flows nicely. Check.

"You talkin' to me?" The name Ethan was actually in the running for our first son, too. At the time, we felt it was a little too popular. In 2006, it was the #4 ranked boy name. In 2007, it actually moved up a notch to #3. We liked the name enough that we didn't really care how popular it is. And as popular as it is, neither of us know an Ethan personally. There isn't even an Ethan at our daycare.

"Sound Check" We didn't actually go to a park and test out the name Ethan this time, but it seemed to pass the "mulitple pronunciations" test so we were okay with that.

"Good Initials" So if you put together Ethan's first and middle initials and combine with his full last name you get "E.Z. Nguyen" (or E.Z. "Win"). To be honest, his middle name, Zachary actually came before we realized the convenient combination of initials. Kim liked Zachary for his middle name and I said, "EZ?" She immediately loved it. During her pregnancy Kim would also allude to how quickly we got pregnant with Ethan after Camden by saying "Easy in, Easy out." This was her subtle hint at Ethan's name.

Additionally, it's always been my wish to want a boy that I could call "E". I referred in Camden's post to my desire to name him Eric. In lieu of Eric, I'm very happy with Ethan. I got my little "E".

If you read the post from Camden's blog, you may have noticed this excerpt:

Kim and I both really like Ethan alot. Unfortunately, so do a lot of other people. It did not fit rule #3 above. For those with children named Ethan, we think it is a great name. We would have been happy to name our son Ethan, but we do have rules to follow.

Rules be damned!