Finally, the Name!

Saturday morning we sat down over breakfast with the latest list-of-names that we'd assembled, and after crossing off the ones that just wouldn't work we ended up staring at the same names we'd been considering for months: I had my favorites which Annie didn't like, and vice versa. Seamus was just too exotic for Annie, and I already knew too many Ian's and Andrew's. Peckinpah and Tubby were cute but weren't suitable for later in life and we needed something fast for the social security deadlines and the grandma's. A bunch of new names were thrown in the mix, just what we needed was more choices, but one surfaced that I'd discovered on a Gaelic babyname website and we picked it as one of the two names for our "name trial weekend": we decided to try one name on Saturday, then Sunday we'd try out the other name, and by Sunday evening we'd decide which name we preferred. Saturday afternoon we were already hooked and decided to go with it:

Kian Conrad Reid.

Don't call me Kiki or I'll bite your head off!

Kian is pronounced Ian with a K and is of Gaelic/Irish origin (the reason we chose it). It means "ancient name" (Cian/Kiaron from Biblical times) and "king", and I've since found other associations in Persian and Farsi as well as in African dialects. But I may have chosen Kian had it meant anything other than Satan's nickname because most names mean something cool, that's why we perpetuate them. We liked the sound and look of the name, its got some poetic influence, as we like the way it goes with Conrad and Reid. Our main goal was not to curse him with a bad name, but to give him something little different, maybe even a bit exotic, and with some connection to his heritage, which I guess is all a parent can do.

I must have been about 8-years old when I remember my dad telling me that I could change my name whenever I wanted, and I'll be sure to extend the same flexibility to my son.