Picking a name

Picking a name for Blue Bean would have been very easy if he was going to be a she.  Months before I was pregnant, I had said to Mark that if we have a girl I wanted to name her after strong women in our lives.  I knew immediately that I would want to name our daughter after my grandma Liptak and Mark's cousin Leigh.  Both are women who have amazing strength and have endured their share of life's little bumps but are truly fighters and women of great character.  My grandma goes by Laura but when I was doing genealogy work found out her given name is Leokadia (pronounced le-aw-KAHD-yah) which is Polish and means "bright and clear."  Using Leigh and Leokadia we decided on the name Lea Kadia Swafford.


Now picking a name for a baby boy has not been quite as easy.  Before we knew the gender of the baby we had gone through a number of names.  We were mostly looking at Irish/Gaelic names for a first name.  We knew the middle name would be James after my dad, so that was the easy part.  So once we found out we were having a boy we have focused on picking a first name.  So here are the names from the poll:


Connor - lover of dogs
Owen - young warrior
Patrick - nobleman
James - supplantar 


While we haven't come to a final decision, we have narrowed it down to either Owen or Patrick.  We will wait till the baby is born to decide on his name so at least there will be some surprise for everyone.