Baby Name: Why We Chose Hadley & Tatum

Personally, I believe you carry a child for 40 weeks, not just because the baby needs time to grow, but because you need every last bit of that time to come up with a name! My husband and I literally began searching baby names within hours of finding out I was expecting. And no sooner had we started, did we realize how challenging it would be.

I'd pick a baby name, he'd shut it down. He'd pick a name, and I'd remind him of the unpleasant things it rhymed with. We both used the "I went to school/worked with so-and-so" many times. So, when we were finally able to narrow it down, we were beyond thrilled.

At the time, we both wanted to stick with the same first letter for all of our future children's names (that didn't happen), so when we decided on our favorite boy name, Hayden, we immediately began searching the H's for our girl name. And when we found the name Hadley, we fell in love. As the months passed, and we found out we were having a girl, we couldn't have been more pleased with our decision -- Hadley it was.

When we learned we were expecting the second time, we honestly didn't think too much about baby names until the actual gender reveal. It was a boy, and we had already decided on Hayden three years earlier. Piece of cake, right? Nope -- three years later Hayden didn’t have quite the same ring to it. 

My husband and I decided we wanted to use a boy name that revolved around our alma mater, The Ohio State University Then, one night after coming home from a football game, it hit us: Tatum, after football star, Jack Tatum. Not only because my husband played the same position as him at OSU, but because his nickname was "The Assassin." And when I was expecting my dear son, I honestly thought he was going to kill me.

Though we second-guessed it right up until we filled out the paper work after he was born, I can't imagine him as anything other than our Tatum.

Are my names traditional? Not really. Did we have many naysayers with both of our children's name choices? Of course, but in the end, working with my husband to come up with the perfect monikers for our little ones made it all worth it.

Photo by Melisa Figueroa on Unsplash