What's in a name?

Chase William Bradford

How we got to his name is quite a funny story.  For months I thought his name was going to be Hudson.  It's not that I loved Hudson, it's just that I couldn't think of anything else that was better. 

We have all these rules though...
Eric's rules: The first name can't be 1 or 3 syllables.  The initials also can't spell anything that the kid could get made fun of later in life.
Kristin's rules: No name alliteration (Brayden Bradford, Brandon Bradford etc) and no soft 'a'.  I don't like Grant Bradford, but I do like Caden Bradford for example.  Soft "a" versus hard "a". 

So we were kind of limited.

I LOVED the name Chase, but it was 1 syllable, so it was out.  I thought Hudson was so cute.  It was a little unconventional for me, but I liked it and wasn't going to decide until meeting the baby, but in my mind, that would be it.

The middle name was another challenge.  James is my dad's middle name (Ethan's middle name) and my mom's dad's name is Robert, but I have a cousin named Robert.  And, he passed away long before I was born.  My maternal grandpa that I did know was Papa Bill, who I adored!  But I can't imagine naming a baby's middle name Bill, but William I love!  It's also Eric's middle name, and his grandfather's name.  Win win win!  BUT, Eric didn't want to share his name.  Hun???  We literally had no other backups.  They would have just been another non family name that we liked.

Our options going in were:
Hudson Grant Bradford
Hudson Chase Bradford
Colin Thomas Bradford
Colin Henry Bradford

Since my water broke with Ethan, I didn't know what "going into labor" would feel like so I had 2 bouts of false labor.  On our 2nd trek down to La Jolla, as we were driving down La Costa Ave just after El Camino Real, Eric said "I don't know if I like Hudson".  I said "WHATTTTTT?"  We might be going to have a baby right now!!!  Then he proceeded to tell me that he didn't mind Chase and he didn't mind William.  Seriously??

So, I was SO happy.  I was shocked that he agreed to all of this without any bartering.  In fact, those names were completely off the table in my mind.

Here was our short list. 
First Name: Owen, Carter, Carson, Austin, Hudson, Nolan, Colin, Chase, Henry and Evan.

Middle Name: William, Grant, Chase, Thomas, Oliver

Maybe I'll refer back to this if we have a 3rd boy!!!???  Hahaha