What's in a Name...

(My little man Rett - one of the only pictures I have where his eyes are open)

So our little guy has one big name and a lot of people have been asking where it comes from...so here's the scoop:

Full name: Everett Stephen Patton Cowley
Nickname: Rett

Over the last year or so Steve and I thought up a handful of girl names we just loved...but we struggled the entire time we were trying to concieve to think of one boy name we liked. We toyed with the name Donovan for a while (we more or less just like the name Van but wanted something longer) but we didn't like the idea of him being called Don and we have strong love/hate feelings about the soccer player Landon Donovan so that name kind of fell through.

Meanwhile, my good friend Stacy has a buddy named Rhett and after hearing countless storys with him in them the name really started to grow on me. I liked that it isn't something I hear often (I guess it's big in the south)...and the one time I did meet Stacy's friend Rett, our dog Wes ran right up to him and peed on his leg to mark him...so that had to be a good sign right!?!? (Wes also marked Steve once at the dog park after another dog tried to mark Steve's leg, so I take it as a sign that Wes cares about someone). I still wanted something a little more formal than Rett...and I remembered falling in the love with the name Everett the first time we watched the movie Family Stone (plus that is the movie that convinced Steve and I we wanted a big family, no matter how crazy/messy it got). So there it was...the first name was selected - Everett, aka Rett!

Now for the middle names:
Steve's middle name is his father's first name, so we kept the tradition alive and took "Stephen" as the first middle name. And in my family, my brother has a secod middle name "Covington" (his full name is Robbert Kipp Covingtin Riehle...I was always so jelouse of his long name) and that name is my father's, mother's maiden name that was ending in the male line. Well, it just so happened that Steve's, mother's maiden name (Patton) is also ending as well, so a second middle name was born!

(Everett with Grandpa Phil, Dad Steve, and Uncle Kipp...I still need one of Grandpa Bob)

And the last name: Well that was a given...but it's a pretty great name even if we didn't get to pick it out. Cowley is the name of the town in the UK where the Mini Cooper is made, it's a very prestigus name in american LDS history (kind of a family joke now), and it's fun watching/listening to people try to say it without saying "cow" for fear they might offend us...haha oh the amount of times we've been called, "Cooley, Colly, Cully...".

Anyway, I hope our boy likes his name. I figure it's a good, strong name for our good, strong boy!