What's in a Name?

Hello, friends!

One of the things that has surprised me the most about the response that we've gotten to Ezra is how many people compliment our choice of name. I'm sure that no one would say, "Man, that name is terrible!" to our faces, but folk have been genuinely excited to hear him called Ezra. I figure now's a good of a time as any to go through the naming story.

When we were first trying to have a baby, Megan was hanging out with Jesus one day and was in the book of Ezra. I'm not sure of all the details but she heard very clearly that we were going to have a baby boy. Mind you, this was when we didn't know that she was pregnant yet. When we found out that she was pregnant, we looked at the calendar and realized that she got pregnant right around the same time that she heard from Jesus that we were having a boy. When we found out at 20 weeks that we were in fact having a boy, that made things even cooler.

However, Ezra was not a lock for the name. We had a whole list of names that we considered. I liked some that she didn't. She liked some that I didn't. We knew that we wanted a name that would strike a good balance between sounding good, having good significance, and not been TOO common. Eventually, we decided that we would have our top 3 names and make a decision once he was born. We did this for 2 reasons. 1) This gave us more time to pray through the names and 2) it allowed us to honestly tell people that we didn't have a name yet when everyone asked. We wanted him to be the first person to hear his name.

After he was born, both Megan and I knew that Ezra was his name. It couldn't be anything else. We're holding onto the other top 2 options in case we have more boys but this little guy is Ezra. =0).

Of course, he wouldn't be my son without a kicking nickname. In fact, one of the reasons that Ezra stayed in the top 3 for me for so long was because I liked the nickname possibilities. Without further ado, I present to you a current list of nicknames for Ezra Adam Leong.

Ezi - This is what his mother will be calling him. It's simple and it makes sense. I anticipate this being the most popular of the nicknames.

RaRa - This is what his father will be calling him. I wanted something a little unique. Also, I love how every time you say it, it sounds like you're cheering for him.

Little E - This is what his grandfather (Papa John Leong) will be calling him. My nephew's name is Elliot so Papa has decided that Ezra will be Little E and Elliot will be Big E.

Brother Ez - This is what his other grandfather will be calling him. It's a play on words from Brother Iz, who's the guy who sang that version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" that everyone likes.

AJ - This is what my younger sister has been calling him. I've been told it stands for "Adam Junior" because he looks so much like me.

Ez - This is what a few folk with the name Ezra guess he'll be called because that's what they're called. Again, it's simple and makes sense. I prefer Ezi myself.

Eazy E - Also acceptable would be Dr. Dre or Ice Cube. (Just kidding… sort of)

Have an excellent day!

~Adam