The Namesake

Natalie asked me where we found the name Deaglan. The truth is, Shaune found it on the internet. Shaune's first name is actually Patrick after his paternal grandfather. At first we toyed with the idea that should we have a boy we would keep up this tradition maybe name the baby after his paternal grandfather and father. So we were going to call him Patrick William, William being Shaune's dad's name.

A week before our ultrasound we lost our dog Judge. Although he had been living with insulin dependent diabetes for over a year, the loss was sudden and devastating. He was our first baby. I wrote about it here and here . So when we got to the hospital to see our unborn baby in my womb, we were craving some happy news, something that we could get excited about. I mean we were really thrilled about expecting a child but we wanted something immediate to distract us from the heartbreak we were experiencing.

In Ontario, the ultrasound technician is not permitted to tell you the gender of the baby. You have to wait until your next doctor's appointment to find out. However, we were fortunate that our technician was a young mother herself, expecting her second child and she just happened to know one of my sisters from highschool. So although she couldn't tell us whether the little monkey in there was a boy or a girl she gave us enough hints for us to figure it out. I know that there is a 50 per cent chance that you can have one sex or the other but I was completely surprised that I would be having a boy. My sister has had three beautiful girls, Shaune has three sisters and as you know from a past post, my biological siblings are all girls. I guess girls is all I know. We walked out of that hospital and kept saying to each other - can you believe we are having a boy? We must have sounded like fools but we didn't care. This news made the baby seem more real. We were really going to have a baby and he was going to be a he.

At home we discussed the name. Shaune suddenly had a change of heart.

"Do you think we should name him Patrick or go with something else?" he ask me nervously several times.

"It's up to you I like the name."

He went downstairs for a while and came back up with a piece of paper with something written on it.

"What do you think of this?"

On the paper it said DEAGLAN. Without hesitation I told him that I loved it.

"You pronounce it like Declan and it means full of goodness. It's a mix of Irish and English."

So our little he became Deaglan William. And that name has been a pain in the butt ever since. People have no idea how to pronounce it. Our doctor insists on calling him Deeglan (hard g) even though I am completely obnoxious in how many times I say his name within her earshot in one visit. People also call him Deglan (hard g again) and Dee-ag-lan. Because of this Shaune has insisted on more than one occassion that we change his name. Can you imagine?

Doctor: How is DEEGLAN doing?

Me: Uhhh actually it's Jack.

Seriously though I love the name and I think after several years of hating us for giving him this burden of explaining and enunciating he will someday thank us when the girls are ooohing and awwwing about what a cool name he has.