Tyler & I were looking for the holy grail of names, a name that isn't extremely common, but that isn't weird either. We were also desperately avoiding names that ended in "N" and names that started with "C, T & K". So one day while driving in the car together (I cannot remember where we were going, but I feel like we were heading North on Highway 2), we were listening to Tyler's Ipod when an Offspring song came on. The lead singer of the Offspring's name is Dexter, which Tyler thought of while listening to the song & said to me "How about Dexter?" I was pretty used to hating or disliking everything I heard so it gave me pause and I was like "I don't hate it!" Then I thought more about how it worked on two levels as I also liked the TV show and the Offspring. And it really fit the criteria we had set up for a name...so we decided to keep the name to ourselves and put it on our short list.
Then while watching a TV show called "Criminal Minds" I decided I liked the name Spencer Reid, which is one of the characters, I both liked the names individually & together. Tyler liked them also so they were both added to our short list, Spencer for a first name & Reid more likely for a middle name . Our plan was to brainstorm names we really liked and then wait til baby boy was born and see if one name suited him particularily.
Over time, Dexter was still towards the forefront for names but I began to really like 'Zac'. The problem with Zac though is that I felt it was pretty popular. Also, Tyler didn't like it. But with Spencer & Dexter being the two names vying for 1st, I wanted an option that didn't end in 'er'. Over the last few months I really felt like baby wasn't a Spencer or Dexter but a Zac. It probably didn't hurt that I had a crush on 'Zac Efron' after watching '17 Again'.
My mom was really grilling me for names one day on the phone, so I said, to give her an idea of the "kind of names" we liked, that Spencer was one (at this point, really thinking that we probably wouldn't go with Spencer). One of our things was that we didn't want anyone to know our name beforehand. The reasons behind this became clear when my mom told Vanessa about 'spencer' who then told Melody. Vanessa called me up to tell me she liked the name and the next time I saw Mel she warned me against using it cuz of her association with Spencer Pratt (a lame person famous for being famous & married to Heidi Montag). Thankfully by then, Spencer was mostly off the table as a choice as far as I was concerned. We liked it, but it wasn't a LOVE choice.
So I went into the hospital thinking Zac, possibly Zac Evan cuz then his initials would be ZEN. Some of the other names I liked (though not necessarily liked by Tyler) were Zen, Zander/Xander, Phoenix, Heath, Evander...that's all I can remember. I'm "releasing" the names now as I'm sure we'll change our minds about what we like by baby #2 IF there is a baby #2.
After the GRUELLING process of giving birth, we looked at baby boy and I was like okay, I don't think he's a Zac LOL But as for which name he looked or felt like from our list, I was at a loss. I though he could easily be any of these names we like...So now what do we do? I really wanted a name to announce his arrival so I was like well let's just go with Dexter as it was the strongest contender for the longest time and it was a name we both liked & agreed upon. I knew there would be people who didn't like it (as with any name), but honestly I didn't really care :-D I'm not sure what time it was when we decided on the first name, but it was a little while, like maybe an hour? We had the name by the time I had company in the room but was still in the delivery room. SIDENOTE: that was creepy by the way. There were bloodstains on the floor from me and I have company in the room? So my blood is just getting all up on their shoes? Just felt really personally violating or something.
As for his middle name, that took a while longer. Again, we weren't sure what to go with. Tyler mentioned out loud the name REID and it got a positive response from the room. We had to decide when I was filling out the paperwork to the leave the hospital, 24 hours later, and that's when we went with Reid. The spelling is my preference, Tyler would have went with REED, but I like the 'ei' better. Plus, in Grimshaw there is a family of Reid's and though I have no positive association with the name, that's just what seems "correct" for me.
After announcing Dexter Reid to the world, my brother insists that we got the name from the TV show, Dexter's Labortory. Which I don't think I had even thought of.
And my Grandma Johnson informed me that my FarmVille game was lacking as I didn't know that Dexter was a name for a breed of cattle! Apparently my experience at AFSC was lacking as well ha ha It does make Dexter's cowprint outfit more appropriate thought. All that considered, we are happy with Dexter's name and he seems to be growing into it.
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