We Picked a Name‏

"Oh come, now, you don’t mean to let on that you like it?”

The brush continued to move.

“Like it? Well I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth—stepped back to note the effect—added a touch here and there—criticized the effect again—Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:

“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”

- Mark Twain The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

We had absolutely no problem picking out a name for either of the girls. It was so simple, we both immediately agreed on both Rori and Gracie – “boy” has this been a different experience.

We haven’t been able to agree on any of the names for one reason or another. Nate’s supreme test of any name is if it sounds good in the name game song… “banana-fanna-fo- facie….Gracie”. Everything from “I knew someone named that in high school”, “that name sounds too ‘hard’”, “I don’t want his nick-name to be…”, to “that’s a good old man’s name- but not a little boy name” has been presented to disqualify various monikers.

Well I think we have the name.

We talked about this one a few times- and off-handedly disqualified it each time. Nate told me the other day that he had always wanted a little boy named Sawyer- because of Tom Sawyer. Nate is a big Mark Twain fan. I like the name too- and so- simply as that we settled on it.

Sawyer- because we like it- and Nate likes Mark Twain (He says he still gets to call the baby Huckleberry – his other Twainian choice)

GranBarry- Because Nate’s great-grandpa was named “Nathan Granberry”, Nate’s dad is named “Barry” and Nate’s middle name is “Barry”

Pilcher- Because that’s just the way it works.

We are excited. It even works with the name game- it must be right…

“Sawyer, Sawyer bo-boyer, banana-fanna-fo-foyer……”