Sam's name

I figured I should talk about Sam's name though there's not a giant long dramatic story. When we got pregnant the first time over 3 years ago, we knew pretty much after I took the pregnancy test what we wanted to name our child. I knew it was going to be a boy and John and I both independently had Jack has our first choice. So by week 5 of 40, we had settled on Jack. This time? Not so much. We couldn't agree on anything. And, more importantly, neither of us really had a name that we loved. We kept waiting to LOVE a name like Jack and nothing was making us excited. The few names that John really liked, I hated. (Hollis? Grant? I just couldn't do it.) And John was bored by the traditional names I liked. (Matt, Tom, Christopher, etc.) Of course, I kept pushing to pick a name but John kept putting it off and telling me that we had plenty of time. I think it was around week 36 when we discussed Sam and thought it was a name we could both maybe agree on. I liked that it was a solid "normal" name. I liked that it could be Sammy when he was little. And I really liked how Jack and Sam sounded together. Very cute. Truthfully though, I don't really like "Samuel" that much. But John thought we should be proper and have Samuel on the birth certificate. So there it was.

As I side note, and unbeknownst to me, it turns out that my great grandfather's nickname was Sam.  My dad let me know after the fact but I think it's pretty cool.

Sam's middle name, Mathias, is from John's side of the family. Jack's middle name, Nunzio, is obviously from my Italian grandpa. We wanted to honor John's side of the family this time and we went back and forth on a few middle names. I sort of left it up to John and one day, towards the very end of my pregnancy, he brought up "Mathias". (Pronounced Ma-thigh-us) It's the name of the town in West Virginia where his mom was born and raised. We liked how unique and interesting it was and thought it went well with Samuel. Soo...there you have it. Samuel Mathias. Our boy.