What’s in a name?

So more than a week has passed since our little one entered the world and today I had a very sudden and unexpected realization.  As I sat across from Tracy as she fed Miller, I felt, for the first time, normal.  Sure, it’s only been a week of diaper changes, swaddling and learning the first few in’s and out’s of parenting but the whole experience has felt so right and today it actually felt normal.  Of course, when I changed a diaper later in the evening and found poop smeared on my wrist, abnormality reigned again (except for the understanding that smeared feces is the new norm, at least for a few months!)

What I’m getting to with this decidedly long-winded lede is that we’ve enjoyed every second of the last week and a half and find ourselves finally having time to step back and reflect on what has happened.  Our lives are changed forever, and we couldn’t be more ecstatic about that truth.  Now that I have a sleeping baby in his crib, a napping wife on one couch and a napping mother-in-law on the other, I thought I’d take some time and do something I planned to do a while back by explaining how we decided upon Miller’s name.

Long before even the idea of kids entered the equation, Tracy and I would talk from time to time about names.  It was a fun road trip/time wasting tradition and we’d run through all kinds of names from our past as well as new ideas we’d come up with off the cuff.  Over the course of those conversations it became clear that it was very important for both of us that our name have some meaning beyond just a trendy or catchy nom du jour.

With our name, we hoped to bestow a bit of history and heritage on our little one, a name which we could explain down the road as having its roots sown many years ago in a family lineage which Tracy and I are both very proud of.  We desired to have both sides of our family represented, for both have served to shape us into the people we are today, and we expect both to have a profound impact on the life of our child.

In the end, we decided on 1 name for each possible gender, and were well prepared when our little one ended up being a little man.  The name was ready for him as he announced his presence to the world with a cry:

John Miller Mansfield had entered the world.

The first name of John is a tribute to my father, who bears the same name.  What’s a bit unique though is that my Mom and Dad named me John Zachary, with the intention that I would always go by my middle name.  We employed the same methodology as a hat tip to their idea and my name structure - our John Miller will be known simply by his middle name as well.

And that middle name of Miller is, of course, Tracy’s maiden name and the name passed down by a long line of Miller men who have lived lives of integrity and service which we will be delighted to share with our boy some day.

When you put it all together you have a name which is an amalgamation of two fine families - it’s only fitting that our Miller has a name which speaks to the history of those before him who will also help him become a young man with his own legacy in the years to come.