What's in a Name- Miles Fife Whitmer

Cortney Talbott Photography

Oh the naming game!

This time around we didn't even talk names at all until the gender reveal ultrasound at 18 weeks.   We didn't want the debate to start too early.  I thought it would be a boy this time, and boy names are SO HARD for us.  We'd already nixed all the boy names on the other's list with Oliver.  It was a miracle to finally be able to agree on one boy name last time.  If Abby had been a boy too we might still be deciding on their names!

So it was officially a boy and the debate began.  But not really.  I started to make my lists but we were still avoiding the real debate.  I made lists and lists and lists.  At one point we had over 100 names on the list we were considering.  Occasionally Matt would throw a name out there.  I tried to be more open this go around.  I would think on the couple names he would say for a few days before I would say much.  I tried really hard to like them- but I still had qualms.  We were almost agreed a few times and then one of us would back-out.  I was DONE looking at the baby names sites.  I was pulling out my hair sick of looking at boy names. I am an expert on thousands of boy names- their meanings, their popularity, the way boy names are trending.  Finally at 34 weeks we settled on Miles.  We hadn't even talked about that one until probably 30 weeks along.  We also considered Milo but decided we liked Miles better.  Here are the stats-

Miles-  Rank: 111 in 2012

Meaning
High German- mild, peaceful, calm                                        

Old Slavonic (milu)- merciful

Latin- soldier

Qualms-
Miles- as in a unit of measure, as in 5,280 feet  but Matt can also mean like a door mat so oh well
-people always ask if it's spelled with an i or y- we tend to like the more traditional spelling to avoid as much confusion so we went with the i

Things I love-
-It's SHORT!!! I've been trying to get us to agree on a short name for each of our kids and we finally managed it.  1 syllable and 5 letters
-Fits our usual criteria of being not too popular but people have still heard of it
-It's kind of old fashioned, Miles Standish came over on the Mayflower.
-It's also kind of trendy- Miles is the name of a character in some newer tv shows like Revolution- a sure sign that it's on the up swing.
-starts with an M like Matthew

Fife- Rank: not on Social Security List

Meaning

Scottish- Kingdom, area in Scotland

It's a family name on Matt's side.  His Grandma and Grandpa Fife are both still living and we love them so much!  His Grandpa Fife's first name in Calvin, but Matt also has an Uncle named Calvin, and a cousin named Calvin.  I really loved the name Calvin before I even met Matt, but we figured the line of Calvins had dibs on that one.  I like a ton of boy's names that are also last names- so I liked the idea of using a last name for his middle name.

Matt actually suggested Fife for a first name when I was pregnant with the twins and for Miles as well.  I like names that aren't as popular but Fife has never even made the social security list.  It was a little too unusual for me for a first name- and I really didn't like Fifey as a nickname.  We've had a lot of comments about how unusual it is- it makes me glad we didn't use it for the first name.

  We were pretty sure of Fife as the middle name from the beginning- I like using family names for the middle name and the only other family name on both sides we kind of considered was Matt's and his dad's middle name Lyle.  It was also his Grandpa Whitmer's first name.  I would have considered it as a first name- but Matt liked Fife better.  Plus Miles Lyle rhymes, so that sealed the deal on using Fife.

I also like that his middle name is short.  His first and middle name combined are only 9 letters- the same length as Charlotte!  I'm happy to report that even though it took us so long to decide we both love his name and how it fits with the rest of the family!