The Story of a Name

Now that L.J. has arrived I suppose we can finally reveal that we picked out his name months before his arrival. I still can’t believe that we managed to keep it under wraps until he was born!

We had our work cut out for us upon learning we were having a boy. There were a few girls names we both liked, but we hadn’t found common ground on any boys names yet. We decided that we would both spend some time coming up with a list of possibilities and then come together and see where that took us.

We knew that we wanted a name that was more traditional than trendy and it was very important that the name we chose incorporate our family and our Catholic faith. Also, Mike was adamant that the baby would not go by his middle name or be a Third (Mike is a Junior who goes by his middle name).

Landon was name on both of our lists. There actually isn’t any real significance behind the name – it’s just a name we both really liked. Mike’s only concern about Landon was that the name didn’t have an obvious nickname to go with it and he felt that all little boys should be able to have a nickname.

James and Michael were two middle name contenders. I had a strong preference towards James because it was my paternal grandfather’s name and it is also my brother’s name. James is also the name of Mike’s paternal grandfather.

One evening about a week after we had talked about name choices Mike came home, put his bag down and said he had an idea. He said, “What about L.J.? You really love the name Landon and I like it too, but it needs a nickname. We can name him Landon James and call him L.J.”

I will never, ever forget that moment because instantly that was his name. It was absolutely perfect. L.J. incorporated the nickname Mike wanted, and it also satisfied my desire that it incorporate family. Landon will go by his initials just like my brother does – Landon James (L.J.) and James Thomas (J.T.).

(Side story: Most people know how important my Grandma is to me. She is the one who started calling my brother J.T. after he was born. Turns out that her brother, Casper Joseph, also went by his initials. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that, but my parents mentioned it in passing the other weekend (not knowing L.J.’s name) and I thought that was a pretty neat correlation!)