Naming Simon

Everyone has their own preferences for baby naming.  Exploring baby names is super fascinating to me, so I thought I would share how we came up with the name Simon Keith for our sweet boy.  Boy names are much more difficult than girl names, in my opinion, because it seems like there are less options. You can't get away with random flower names or just pretty sounding names And you want it to be something that is masculine enough to put on a business card someday, just in case he wants to be a business man.  

Here was our criteria (no judgement to other mindsets!):

-Easy to spell correctly upon hearing

-Obviously a boy name

-Has to exist in history, not made up

-Not in the top 100 of the social security website

-Not a long name with a short nickname, but just one name

We started assembling "the list" last summer.  We had a few favorite ideas starting out but none of them seemed to make the final cuts because they were all too popular.  I emptied the library shelf of baby naming books and took them to the lake the day after our gender-determining ultrasound.  We read three of them cover to cover, boy names only of course.  Over time we each chose our favorites and narrowed down our list through many debates.

I remember being on the dock at Dee and Barry's when I first came across Simon.  Beth was sitting with me and I asked her how many Simon's she knew in her years of preschool and kindergarten teaching.  She had only ever known one and he was a very cool and funny kid. 

I loved a few things about the name immediately.  It met all our criteria, and it is derived from the Hebrew name Simeon which means "listener" or "he listens."  We hope that he grows into his name and has a soft heart to listen to God and other people.  I loved that it was classic and fresh.  It was also ranked at 255 so it was likely that there wouldn't be 3 other Simons in his class at school.  It was a winner!  Although, it took about three months for Bert and I to officially agree on it.  We had a few other favorites, which I'm not going to disclose yet, just in case.

The middle name Keith is in honor of Bert's dad Keith, and it's also his middle name (Daniel Keith).  I love it as a name and how it sounds with Simon. It's meaning has to do with woods, forest, and battleground.  Since Bert loves working with wood and being in the forest, it seems like a good fit there too.

Yay for Simon Keith!