his name.

once we found out we were expecting a boy, people immediately started asking about the name. but we hadn't picked out any boy names. i have a few girl names that i've liked since long before i was ever pregnant... but i've never had any boy names make it on a "list". 

james and i starting making suggestions to one another of various names we came across, but we could never find one that stuck. [have you seen the episode of friends were ross & rachel are trying to choose a name? it was rather similar to that.] i actually started feeling really overwhelmed at the thought of choosing a name... it's such a big responsibility! 

and then when we were sitting in the waiting area at the social security office waiting to change my last name, it flashed across one of the television screens that showed regulations, policies, and random facts about the social security administration. so we actually found his name when while we were changing mine. :] 

since aiden was a honeymoon baby & i got really sick almost immediately, i didn't have time to take care of any of the newlywed tasks. finally one time when we were visiting home, james & i took advantage of a day while i was feeling okay to run errands and change my name. once james saw it on the screen, he suggested it as a potential name, and we both actually really liked it. neither of us knew anyone with the name, which was a big bonus for us.

we later learned that it has become a fairly popular name in recent years, but we decided that wasn't an issue for us. james grew up with a best friend named james, so maybe the same thing will happen for aiden. :]

as for his middle name, my parents were visiting a couple weeks later, and we were discussing names over breakfast. when we said aiden was looking like the front runner, my dad said if we named him aiden james, then he could call him a.j. and that would be okay. hehe. my paternal grandfather was also named james, so i liked the idea. apparently i didn't communicate this to james though because after aiden was born, we were filling out his birth certificate and james thought his middle name would be my maiden name. after a bit of confusion and contemplating, we went with aiden james.

i hope he grows to like his name. so far, i think it fits him well. :]