How and Why We Picked Our Son’s Uncommon Boy Name
On May 11, 2021 by Megan FolsomI truly don’t think I will ever stop getting questions about my son’s rare name, but I totally get it. It was never actually my plan to name my kids super uncommon names, but here we are… I would be curious too, and I don’t mind sharing, because his name is very special to me.
The Story Behind His Name
Before I had kids, I had a random note in my phone that I started at the end of college. It was a future baby names list, and I would add names in from time to time if I came across something I loved. For some reason, almost all of them were cute, girl names, though.
At the beginning of my pregnancy, I felt like (and hoped that) I was having a girl, because I was SO sick. Because of that, the fact that we had a list of potentials and we felt like we had plenty of time to decide, we didn’t really stress about thinking about new names to add.
Throughout my pregnancy, people would ask what name we had chosen and wanted to know all of the names on our list. We had NO idea what we were going to name him and the questions honestly stressed me out so much! I felt like it bugged people that we wouldn’t tell them his name, but we really hadn’t decided.
Plus, I was hesitant about sharing a long list or even our top few options in case it changed completely once he was born, and… it totally did, FYI.
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Find Out It Was a Boy
At about 19 weeks, Austin and I went in for our first anatomy ultrasound to find out the gender. As I mentioned, I was convinced that my baby was going to be a girl. I just FELT it.
To be completely honest, I was at a point in my life where I was REALLY struggling. Looking back, I was probably experiencing some prenatal depression. Life had been hitting me with some obstacles over and over. As I looked around at the lives and experiences of others around me, I felt like I had been dealt the short end of the stick. So, I had a feeling that it was going to turn out to be a boy, just because I hoped it was a girl.
(I have to add in, that I am so so grateful to have my son and I can’t imagine my life having someone instead of him. He is such a blessing and I love him so much. Pregnancy hormones and depression just sometimes really get the best of you.)
On our 30-minute drive to the OBGYN office, I had a vivid daydream about my late grandpa. As it ended, I turned to Austin and told him that our baby was a boy. He told me that I didn’t know that, and it could just as easily be a girl. (He knew my state of mind of expecting the worst to always happen to me and thought that’s why I was saying it.)
We went into our appointment and… sure enough. It was a boy. I felt bad for the ultrasound, because we were completely silent and she was waiting for a good reaction. As she continued the anatomy measurements, I vividly remember her commenting “Man, it’s so quiet in here…” and hanging me a tissue.
My Grandpa
During my pregnancy and most important life milestones, I had several very real dreams about my grandpa. After that daydream on the way to the appointment, I knew I wanted to name from son after him in some way. His name is pretty uncommon – Mahonri Trussler Butterfield. However, he was always known as “Truss,” for as long as I knew him! We talked about it several times, and I always told Austin that I really wanted them to share his middle name.
After that point, we kept a list of potential boy names. We’d come back to it every couple of weeks. Sometimes we added more names, sometimes took names aways, and always feeling more stressed as people asked more and more as my due date got closer.
We came up with a top list of three or four names, and decided to just hold off until he was born. Since we weren’t 100% sure about any of them yet, we figured we’d wait to see how we felt after we met him.
The Birth
Eventually, I wound up having to be induced, and then he was born with some complications. Because of that, we ended up staying in the hospital for five full days. (I’ll have to share my full birth story another time).
While we were there, the nurses came in SO many times to ask if we had named him yet. None of the names on our list felt right. (I’ve always had a hard time making decisions – hello, type 9 enneagrams!) We finally ended up telling our families that we only knew his middle name so far, Trussler.
A couple family members asked why we didn’t just name him Trussler, since it was cute and fitting for him. Honestly, I was hesitant about naming him something so uncommon, especially since it’s such a hot topic these days. Some people are very anti-uncommon or trendy baby names and pro-traditional baby names.
But, we decided that it didn’t matter what others thought – people would have an opinion one way or another. So, we decided to go with a very short, common and simple middle name to complement it. We actually made a list of one-syllable boy names that we liked and tested them each out with his name.
And so he became Trussler Dean.
To be honest, it WAS a little weird to get used to at first, because it was always my grandpa’s name and no one else’s. But, we usually call him Trussler, and my grandpa was always Truss. Plus, I love that there’s such a special meaning to his name and so many personal memories and experiences.
I can’t wait for Trussler to grow up, so that I can tell him all about his sweet, Great-Grandpa Truss.
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