And he shall be called....

My Little Bear,
I wanted to tell you the special story about how we chose your name because it will be yours for the rest of your life. Some mommies might say that they had a list of names chosen long before they even knew they were pregnant, names they had always dreamed of giving to a boy or to a girl. I am not one of those mommies. It is also surprising that your daddy has such strong opinions about names, which is certainly because he has had many a student give him a bad memory to go along with their particular name. So we have had many, many, many discussions of what your name should be.

Once we found out you were a boy, we STILL weren't sure. There were two possibilities after the list was narrowed down, and neither one was particularly common. One was the name of a current professional golfer whose last name also sounds a bit Irish like ours, and the other name actually came from a Welsh spelling. I must admit that when choosing how to spell your sister's name, I was adamant that we not spell it in some crazy complicated manner because I didn't want her having to correct people her entire life. And yet, that's exactly what we did for you, my man.

We knew that your middle name would be Holbrook, after your daddy's maternal grandfather. His name was John Holbrook Chalmers, and he was a loving father, generous philanthropist and savvy businessman. And with that strong middle name in addition to your long last name, we knew that your first name had to be short and sweet. The name we chose for you supposedly means enthusiasm, fervor, passion, or ultimate strength. Apparently your spelling is common in Europe and Australia, but less so here in America. But still, your daddy says he just knew it was the name for you. And so, your name will be Rhys.

Rhys Holbrook Kilpatrick. What a guy.

Love, Mama