Name Trauma

This is for posterity.  Someday I may look back on this and laugh.  May.  Besides, our first son may want to know how we decided on his name, so here we go.

We had once decided that we would name a son after Eric, but it didn't feel right and I picked up my 100,001 Baby Names book to find a suitable alternative.  I ended up reading through every single boy name in the book and writing down any and all that struck my fancy even a little bit.  With easily traceable (great grandfather) Irish blood, I was in favor of an Irish name.  Connor and Declan were two I really liked.  Eric nixed them so I moved on.  To say it was a tedious process to read, write, and strikeout unwanted names is a bit of an understatement.

Eventually I got to the Qs and wrote down Quinton.  I was almost positive it would get the thumbs down, but it turned out that Eric really liked it.  Just to be sure, I finished off the alphabet.  We still liked Quinton the best.

Now I must explain something.  Eric and I have always preferred the more traditional spelling of names.  It makes things easier.  Except for Maya.  For some reason it seems that most people can't wrap their head around her name and its spelling.  They say MAY-uh rather than MY-uh, despite the traditional spelling.  Anyway.  So the more traditional spelling of the name is Quentin.  It's the first name of Quentin L. Cook, an apostle of the Lord.  I like that.  It's also the first name of this guy:

Thanks, imdb.com for the picture.  The fact that this one was chosen to represent him only proves my point.

He creeps me out down to the cellular level.  Did you ever see him on Alias?  I almost can't watch the episodes he's in because I spend so much of them cringing under a blanket.  Creepy just doesn't cover it sufficiently.  But none of that has anything to do with why we chose to go with Quinton over Quentin.

The book I have shows Quinton as a name separate from Quentin.  We thought Quinn would be a great nickname and preferred the Q-u-i-n spelling for that reason.  The problem is that Eric and I think of the spelling of the full name in two different ways.  One of us sees it as Q-u-i-n-t-E-n and the other sees it as Q-u-i-n-t-O-n.  Could be worse.  I thought.  The book shows both as options (unhelpful) and both of us have a serious aversion to the way the other one spells the name (really unhelpful).

Other spellings have been suggested, but ultimately tossed out.  I didn't think it was so bad with an "i" for Q-u-i-n-t-i-n.  That probably won't happen.  The other suggestion I've gotten is to just name the baby Quinn if that's what we're going to call him.  Neither Eric nor I have names that were easily nickname-able as kids.  I dearly wanted a nickname, but the only one anyone could come up with was "Jordy".  I wasn't ready to be called by the same name as a guy who wears a spray painted banana clip over his eyes.  So sue me; I was a child.  Anyhow, we've always liked the idea of having name that could easily be shortened.  Maya didn't end up getting that.  Oops.  Maybe someday she'll forgive us.  However, we like that the option will be available to Quinn/Quinten/Quinton.

Both of us have our opinions about which spelling looks more "normal".  We both have our opinions on what looks the best.  We also have our opinions about how people are or are not going to mispronounce or spell his name depending on the spelling we choose.  We've come to no conclusions because our discussions/debates/arguments on the matter are circular and get us exactly nowhere.  Neither of us are willing to give in and neither of us are willing to scrap the name and start again.  Figuring this out should be fun.  At least we have another three months.