An Explanation

Picking out names for the babies has always been fun. Fortunately, Matt and I seem to like similar names so we didn't really argue about it and we're able to come up some great names for each kid. So I just thought I'd share the story behind each name. We didn't really go with a typical naming scheme, but we did want our names to have some meaning or significance. The fact that each child has 5 letters in their first name as purely coincidental.  Basically our plan, as established with the first child, was honor a figure that we admire with the first name. And then to honor one of our parents with the middle name. 

Dylan Alexander:  named after Bob Dylan. Music has been very important in both mine and Matts lives. And Bob Dylan is one of the greatest song writers of all time. Also of note, well after Dylan was born I read an article where someone talked about how me met Bob Dylan. And he said that he didn't really know what to say to Dylan because usually you would say something like "I really love your music" in that situation, but with someone like that you should probably say something more along the lines of "I named my  firstborn after you."  And we did just that!  Alexander is a take on Matt's mother's maiden name. We almost used it as his first name, but our last name is already super long, so we decided to use Dylan as the first name a and leave the longer name on the middle. 

Aaron Joseph:   After baseball player Hank Aaron, famous for breaking Babe Ruth's home run record, despite threats against him due to the fact that a lot of people didn't want him to do so since he was black. Matt has always admired Hank Aaron for doing this. Joseph was an easy one.  Both of our fathers are named Joseph, so two birds with one stone.  Also it's my brother's name, and it's also Matt's middle name. Lots and lots of Josephs in our families. 

Agnes Lillian:  after my favorite artist, Agnes Martin. Not only do I love her artwork but I love her philosophy on life. Lillian is a take on my mother's middle name, which I've always loved.

So with these three names we cover all of our parents, and music, art, and sports which have all had important impact on us. I love that our kids have names that matter to us, and we actually like the names as well!