What's in a name?

BRADEN
When I was pregnant with Braden, David and I didn’t start seriously talking about names until after the ultrasound when we found out that he would be a boy (so, about halfway through the pregnancy - July 2004). We considered several names, but we both liked Braden. David really liked it a lot, so that’s what we finally agreed upon. At that time, we had only ever heard of one boy named Braden, and that was one of the sons of David’s former youth minister. Now, there are Bradens (Braden/Brayden/Braiden/Braedon, etc.) everywhere! Who knew we were picking such a popular name! The same thing happened to my parents. They only knew one little girl named Jennifer back in 1976. We all know what happened with that name. Anyway, back to Braden...

Braden’s middle name is William, which is my maternal grandfather’s middle name. His full name is Wayne William D., and he went by “Bill” or “W.W.” Pa Pa passed away in 1992, and I wanted to honor him by using part of his name for my son.

We kept Braden’s name a secret until he was born. Our families were very eager to learn his name, and it was a lot of fun to get to surprise them. We made up a silly name to call him during the pregnancy. It was Babar Billy B. (my uncle Billy added the “Billy”). My grandma even had a blanket embroidered with “Babar Billy B.” She made it so that the fabric section with the name could be removed and embroidered again with the actual name, but we kept it just like it was so we could remember all the fun we had.

CAMERON
We had a girl's name picked out very early on in my pregnancy, but it took us a little while to decide for sure on Cameron's name once we knew he was a boy (No, I will not share the girl’s name; just in case we ever have a daughter and I decide to use the same name, I want it to be a secret, too!). I only knew of one boy in my hometown named Cameron when I was growing up. I never really knew him personally, but for some reason, I remembered his name and liked the sound of it. The next time I remember seeing the name Cameron was when the Left Behind book series came out. The main hero character’s name is Cameron “Buck” Williams. Again, I don’t know why, but I was drawn to the name Cameron. And yes, of course, I knew of Cameron Diaz, but we're leaving her out since she's a girl. :) When I was pregnant with Braden, Cameron was on my short list of boys' names to consider. We picked the name Cameron this time because I really liked it.

Cameron’s middle name is Edward. Edward is also my dad’s middle name and my grandfather’s middle name (my dad is a junior so of course, his dad has the same name). His full name is Hiram Edward B. Pops (my grandfather) passed away in 2007, so I chose to use his middle name this time as a way of honoring and remembering him. I really like giving my sons a name that has some family history in it.