Greatest Gift

After several discussions, I believe J and I have settled on a girl name and a boy name. The girl name was fairly easy. Frances for a first name, after my Dad, his middle name, and Gidget. The original Sandra Dee movie Gidget which I highly recommend, not the later Sally Fields TV show. In the movie, Gidget's parents call her Francie and that’s what I plan on calling the baby if it’s a girl. The middle name will be Elizabeth after J’s Mom, her middle name.

Deciding on a boy name was a much more laborious process. I’ve wanted to use the name Max for a first name for many years now, after my Uncle, my Grandfather, my Great Grandfather and so on. J wasn’t a fan of the name, but as you know, my parents recently got a dog named Max and the mere prospect of teasing his son about being named after Grandma and Grandpa’s dog cinched it for J.

After deciding on the first name, we went back and forth on middle names, J turning down every suggestion I had. I finally asked him to think of some famous people in history whom he respected. His first suggestion was Winston, for Winston Churchill, but that wasn’t a favorite of mine. The next suggestion was Theodore for Teddy Roosevelt. Max Theodore has a certain distinguished ring to it so Max Theodore it is. Our son will be named after my parents’ dog and the twenty-sixth president of the United States. And coincidentally, our friend Ted and his cat.

I researched the meanings of the names. Frances relates to France or franc which means free. Elizabeth means God is plenty or God is bountiful. Max means the greatest, and Theodore means God’s blessing or God’s gift. You can’t really do much with Frances Elizabeth, but the two names Max and Theodore taken together would mean greatest blessing, or greatest gift. I thought that was kind of sweet.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of sharing this with J who immediately said that we’d have to choose a different name if I was going to start associating it with that kind of hippie bullshit.