The Daily Hailey

I was feeling a bit stumped for a blog post, and it was suggested to me to share another post about one of the kids names, and how it was chosen. Its good to mix it up, right? So today, I figured I’d hash out where Dekker’s name came from!

Dekker should’ve been the easiest kid to name, because he was our first, but I will stand behind what I always say – BOYS ARE SO HARD TO NAME!!! Brady and I were 22 when we found out we were pregnant with a little boy, and the name game began.

We learned a couple of things pretty quickly. One thing was that we really liked talking about baby names! It was a fun thing to think about and plan for us. Not stressful. Another thing we learned is that we had VERY different ideas of what we thought we’d name our children. Brady had never really thought too far beyond common/traditional names, and I wanted to push as hard against that as I could! I had boatloads of ideas and he would veto and veto and veto.

I had read the name “Dekker” in a book during the first summer after bible college. I’m not much of a reader, but I was working at the lake and struggling through some big loneliness, and I TRIED to read to keep my mind busy. I can’t tell you what the book was called, but it was traaaaash. Just a crappy book that involved a cop falling in love with someone who actually was a alien, but then wasn’t, but actually was, or some kind of garbage. I truly don’t know the details. I think the cover was purple. 🤷 It doesn’t matter. But there was ONE character that I liked a lot. He was a good guy, and remained honourable through all of their circumstances in the book. Clearly, it wasn’t life changing enough to care about what the book was called, because again, it was crap. But he was a good character that stood out to me. I realized by the end of the book that Dekker was actually his last name, but thats what he was called, for whatever reason. This wasn’t surprising, because Dekker is not an uncommon last name. But it grew on me as the characters first name. It wasn’t that weird at all, but it wasn’t common at all, either. I don’t know anyone named Dekker. And it sounded strong enough for a man but sweet enough for a child. It met my requirements.

It was one of the first boys names I threw into the mix when Brady and I started talking, and honestly, Brady didn’t like it. He said he’d make fun of a kid named Dekker, and call him Deke. I took offence to him making fun of a name I loved it, and obviously swept it off the table as fast as possible. It was still early in the game. We had time.

Except that time kept on trucking, and a name did not come. I was learning through these naming conversations that Brady was quick to veto but things grew on him pretty quickly, too. So months after I mentioned Dekker to Brady, I tried again.

“Oh! I like that! Why haven’t we thought of that one before??”

🙄

We have, dear.

I told him what his first response had been, and he seemed kind of surprised by it. He was considerably more on board the second time, and I blew any other maybes out of the water! Nothing stood even close to Dekker in our list of names. It was pretty obvious at that point that his name was picked.

Since Dekker wasn’t really a “real” name at that point, it wasn’t to be found in any baby name books, online, etc. I’m not suggesting we made it up or anything. People are naming their kids last names a lot more often these days 😉 But towards the very end of my pregnancy, I discovered his name in a book!!! Its meaning was “A prayerful man.” We LOVED that! It sealed the deal for us, for our beautiful first baby!

Our first baby, who was supposed to be one of two, maybe three 😜

When Dekker was born, in ALL his humungous glory, he was very popular during our stay. People from different floors were coming to take a look at the big baby that had been born to the little mother, haha! They’d come in and ask his name, and everyone commented all of the things we had hoped for!

I love that! We’ve never had a Dekker before!
I’ve never heard of that! Its such a strong name!
I love that its juuust different enough, but not too out of left field.

It was so reassuring, and just grew our confidence in our choice.

And as the boy has grown, the name continues to fit. He is a prayerful little man, my Dekker. Just today, in his prayer for lunch, he told Jesus that he hoped Jamin was having a good day in Heaven, and asked him to take care of baby Bambino, too. 💙

I’d say it was a perfect pick!