The Name Game

So how did we settle on Pierce Dennis Dwyer?  Well I'm glad you asked!  While Clay and I loved not knowing the gender of Itty Bitty, we still had to come up with potential names.  And of course we had to have a girl name and a boy name.  The girl name came to us rather quickly.  But the boy name took a bit longer.

We had pretty straight forward criteria for choosing a name.  We wanted a name that was spelled phonetically (even if no one can ever spell it correctly) and it could not be in the Top 100 most popular names.  We didn't want something that was weird or cutsie, but we definitely wanted to make sure our child wasn't one of 10 kids in their first grade class with the same name or derivation of the same name.  Sounds simple enough, right!

Clay and I had both agreed we liked Dennis as a middle name.  Clay's dad's name is Dennis and my paternal grandfather (Papa) is Dennis.  We felt that it would be nice to honor to both of them and a blessing to our son to be named after his grandfather and great grandfather.  Plus we covered both sides of the family in one name.  Convenient!

The first name took a bit longer.  Initially we found the name Desmond.  We really liked Desmond, but Desmond Dennis Dwyer was just awful!  What a mouthful!  Sounds like some used car salesman or something.  So we kept Desmond and we kept Dennis but decided we needed to find either an alternative first or alternative middle name.

Next we thought the name John would be a great middle name.  John is a family name on the Dwyer side.  Clay's paternal grandfather is John Dwyer the 6th.  In fact, had Granny Dwyer not screwed things up Clay would have been John Dwyer the 8th!  Instead when Clay's father was born (the oldest boy) they named him Dennis, thus breaking the cycle.  I am thankful for this because if the name had come all the way to me I don't think I would have the guts to *not* name our son John Dwyer the 9th.  But honestly we're glad it didn't come to that.

While we didn't want John as a first name, it worked great as a middle name.  Desmond John Dwyer wasn't quite a mouthful and we would have been honoring Clay's paternal grandfather who has an amazing story as a WWII vet.  So that was a definite possibility.

However, both Clay and I really really liked Dennis for a middle name.  So we continued the search.  I found a web site that gave name ideas by category (I can't find the site that led to the discovery).  Anyhow, the site had categories such as "Foods" or "African American Leaders" and in each category the site provided 20-30 names as ideas.  The idea of the site was more to get you thinking than actually select a name.

One of the categories was "American Presidents."  Honestly I clicked on the category without thinking.  Mostly I had looked at all the other categories and figured why not.  Searching the list I found President Franklin Pierce.  Other than the fact he was a U.S. President, I really knew nothing about him, but the name Pierce caught my attention and I passed it along to Clay.

We both liked the name and the only affiliations we could make were the U.S. President and Pierce Brosnan (and he played James Bond so that seemed okay).  Since we couldn't find a negative affiliation and the name Pierce otherwise fit out requirements, Pierce went on the list!  And Pierce Dennis Dwyer seemed to have a nice flow.  Plus when we searched for the popularity of Pierce as a first name it is definitely NOT in the Top 100. 

Over the next several months we continued to debate Desmond John or Pierce Dennis.  We never found any other names we liked but we couldn't decide.  Finally we agreed  to wait until we saw the baby.  However it we  had a girl (like Clay predicted) it wouldn't matter.  But since I had 6 different dreams that Itty Bitty was a  boy we figured we should be prepared.

My 6th dream that Itty Bitty was a boy was about 38 weeks.  I dreamt I gave birth to a boy and I named him Pierce.  My dream also somehow reminded me that my maternal grandmother's (Granny Best) maiden name was Pierce.  A fact that I had forgot until then.  When I woke up I told Clay the dream and that I was really leaning towards Pierce.  His only concern was what nickname would the kid have.  But I told him with a one syllable name no one gives you a nickname!

But in the end I didn't know what Clay had decided until the moment Pierce was born.  When the doctors held the baby up for Clay to declare the gender he proudly announced "Honey, it's Pierce!"  We both love the name and have received a lot of compliments!

And of course here are a few more adorable pics of Mr. Pierce!  Clay used his new fancy-smancy lens to take these.  They're really great pics!

 Pierce at 1 week!

 This is my favorite!

Sweet sleeping boy!

 Our special delivery!

And one other point of note.  We never gave anyone an official due date for Pierce.  Not having a due date or a gender was a lot of fun.  We had everyone guessing both gender and birth date which worked out great.  In fact at my office I had a spreadsheet on my door that listed folks' guesses and as days went by we would cross the day off the list.

Since we now know Pierce's birthday (6/27) we can also reveal the "official" due date.  According to the calculator the due date was June 17.  This year that would have been Father's Day.  Also it's interesting that my midwives told me the average delivery date for a first baby is 41 weeks and 3 days.  Wouldn't ya know... Pierce made his debut at 41 weeks and 3 days!  See, I told you due dates were totally arbitrary :)!

And if you're curious what Clay and I guessed.  Clay guess June 18.  I guessed June 20th because I thought maybe God would send us something happy on the anniversary of Grandma Sue's passing.  While we didn't quite hit the anniversary we did receive something very joyful this June!