What's in his name?

My sister recently posted a blog about the meaning behind her little girls name. It inspired me and reminded me that I can't remember sharing with you all how Phoenix got his name.

I was that girl that had a notebook (usually my church note taking notebook) that contained list and list of names I would want to name any future kids. Church got boring sometimes so I would sit and think up names. I have never been interested in the standard names. No offense to those out there that like them or have even been bestowed those names. But I personally did not want to holler across the play ground and have 7 Matthews, Ryan's, Jessica's or Emily's turn around.

Thus was born a list of names like: Finnegan, Oliver, Ocean, Tulip, Ruby, Pilot, Jax, Roman, Capri, Calista, Casper, Jet, January, Phineas, etc. But would ya know that when I got pregnant all of those notebooks disappeared and I could not remember any of the names I once loved.

For a bit the top contenders for Phoenix were. Milo, Finnegan, and Blaise. But then one day I was looking at my belly and realized that the ugly stretchmarks had taken on a shape of their own and turned into....A PHOENIX. I showed Shawn and we both looked at each other and said "hmmm...that's nice" and thus we settled on naming him Phoenix.

But upon further thought Phoenix took on a much greater significance for us. I hate to go into all the unsavory details of my life or Shawns, and so I won't. But I will say that Shawn has always had struggles and has always felt like his life was rising up out of the ashes. There was the fact that when I got pregnant with Phoenix and we decided to do this (yes you heard me right) we felt like we were pulling ourselves up from a mess of our own making.

Then there's the whole aspect of Phoenix meaning "bright red". His hair is red.

And last but not least. The name Phoenix has Greek origins, as does the toddler Phoenix and his mother. His entire name took on a even greater significance. Follow along for a moment if you can.

Phoenix Alexander Troy Campbell

We've already discussed Phoenix, so we'll move on....

Name 2: Alexander- A variation of my name, his paternal grandfathers middle, and one of his uncles middle names. Also Alexander of Troy. Significance Alexandria (me) of Troy (my father).

Name 3: Troy-Happens to be named after two uncles (one of the uncles who has Alexander as a middle name) and his Papouli (his maternal grandfather).

Name 4 (his surname) Campbell- Is Scottish and Fin has Scottish roots.

If you also haven't figured it out yet his first three names are all of Greek origins. Purely by accident.

Did you follow all of that?

Now my only question is when he gets older and says to me "Mom? Why did you name me after a city?" Do I point him to this blog for him to see the history of his name in its entirety or do I remove the stretch mark part? Would you be embarrassed if you were named after your moms stretch marks??? Hmmm....I wonder.