Swagger...

Names are hard.  Growing up, naming my baby dolls and Cabbage Patch Kids, it seemed pretty simple.  Pick a name and BAM!, baby is, miraculously, named.

Not so easy with actual, real life, will-grow-to-be-adults-and-hopefully-grandparents, babies.

Someone once suggested putting "Grandmother" in front of whatever name you were considering for a girl.  Kinda forces you to think of the name in more lasting, mature terms instead of just as a chubby-cheeked, drooling baby.  

Works so well for the popular names of my generation (sarcasm font).  Because, to me, there is nothing mature about Tiffany, Stephanie or Britney.  Just not.  

Largely because all the women with those names are MY AGE and Grandma?  Nope.

For boys, the suggestion was putting "CEO" in front of the name.  "Doctor" could work too.  I didn't really care too much about that.  I've had access to a Fortune 500 CEO's contact list.  And let's just say, I was going no where near a David, John or Scott.  

Through those contacts, I always found the more interesting names to be the more memorable folks.  There was a "Storey" and he was (is) fabulous.  

Family folk lore tells a tale of near-miss for my name.  I was born three weeks early.  Through no fault of my own, mind you.  My parents got food poisoning and the vomiting induced labor.  The pictures of my parents in that delivery room look straight out of a horror movie.  They were ghost white.  

And my mom delivered drug free.

BOOM.

So the story goes, she went into the delivery room thinking she would name me "Jennifer Elaine."  However, I was born Robin Elizabeth.  

Whew.

Cause the world did NOT need another Jennifer Jones.

We got married wanting to name a girl "Grace Elizabeth."  But nine years and 6,983 shots later, we knew to many "Grace's" and had reason to name a girl Aubrey Kate instead.  We love the name.  Love the testimony behind it.  

And I liked the gender-neutralness of "Aubrey."  Chris' great-grandfather was Aubrey Evans.  That's, of course, besides the fact that Pumpkin is named after a male "Aubrey."

Chris, Robin and Aubrey are all gender-neutral.  Which Chris just realized a couple of weeks ago. 

Good thing he's cute.

When it came to naming a son...that was more difficult.  

I wanted something inline with our gender-neutral, English/Welsh/Irish names.  

Rhys fit that perfectly.

There are two sides to the name "Rhys."  

Hate it/Love it.

Gigi has been quoted as saying, "Why did they do that to that boy?"  

(Insert grin.  And maybe a giggle.  She's an almost 94 year old Great Grandmother.  She can say whatever she darn well pleases.)

Generally, the HATE group tends to be grandmother and up in the age category.  Mom says some of her friends don't really "get it."  The receptionist at our pediatrician's office pronounances it "Rice."  

Every.Time.

And I get it.

I've seen enough "Please stop adding 'y''s to your kids' names just to be different" articles.  I know.  

But.  We didn't.

"Rhys" is the traditional Welch spelling of a traditionally male name.  

Reese, Reece, Rese and Rece are all Americanized versions of a traditional male name.  

Watch anything BBC created or even some golfers from across the pond and you'll find a Rhys. 

Or five.

Now, if you're our age or younger (because, let's face it, we are OLD preschool parents.  I actually had a playdate with a precious mom and her three kiddos last week.  She's 25.  I wanted to crawl under the table and die.), then you LOVE the name.  And the spelling (which, again, we did not make up.)

To support this, I've been making a mental (okay, literal, on my phone) list of boy names floating around our little world.

1. Wyatt
2. Rhett
3. Bennett
4. Deacon
5. Holland
6. Travis
7. Carter
8. Rosco
9. Landon
10. Garrett
11. Hayes
12. Charlie
13. Braxton
14. Collin

Not a John, David or Scott among them.  

Which just means if you named your son one of those, he'd likely be the only one.  

In reality, Rhys is not unusual among those names.  

Not to mention, it fits in perfectly with our family.  

Chris/Cris/Kris

Robin/Robyn

Aubrey/Aubrie

Rhys/Reese/Reece/Rese/Rece

Shortly after Rhys was born, I found this article on Pinterest.  Where all good and perfect-but-will-never-have-time-to-do ideas are found.  

"Baby Boy Names with Serious Swagger."

Now, look.  He was born into a family with a SAHM and Dr. Band Geek as his parents.  "Swagger" might not be in the cards for him.  But then again...

Hate it or love it, "Rhys" is the perfect name for our Little Man.  

But either way, you now know that RHYS IS A REAL BOY NAME and not something we made up with some sort of John Travolta name game.

(Please, tell me y'all get that reference.)