He’s Here! Introducing…

As most of you know already, our newest baby was born on Saturday, November 8th. We’re so in love with him and happy to be back home settling into life.

The kids were SO excited to meet him! Although we had a few names on a list that we liked, we didn’t decide for sure on his name until we saw him.

We decided to tell our children first once we got home from the hospital. Here’s some photos of them meeting and holding him for the first time.

We decided to name him Alekhin Wilhelm – Alek for short.

Some friends and family have asked the “why” behind our name choice, so I thought I’d share that with you.

Alekhin

My husband’s parents chose his name from a character in a Louis L’Amour novel (a series of novels actually). A few months ago, my husband was reading a novel also by Louis L’Amour and there is a character named Alekhin. We both instantly liked the unique name. It means defender of the people” or “protector.

As a side note – I have said for years that I thought the name Anakin was a neat name and I loved the way it sounded…but I couldn’t bring myself to name one of our boys after a Star Wars character, especially the bad guy.

But when I heard the name Alekhin, I liked it even more! It was an added bonus being able to give this little nod to my husband’s name in choosing Alekhin’s name.

Wilhelm

My son Gideon suggested the name William. He’s been obsessed with chocolate and all things related to it for the past two years. Milton Hershey, Willy Wonka, making his own homemade chocolates – he’s so into it! So I wasn’t surprised at all when he suggested William and I liked the name quite a bit.

We ended up going with the German version of William, which is Wilhelm, because we felt it flowed a little bit better with his first name, Alekhin, but also as a nod to my ancestry, which, as far as we’ve traced, is German on all sides. Wilhelm means “resolute protection”.

Choosing a name for our children has always been one of the hardest decisions. I hope he grows up to love his name the way we love it!