The Name

The most common question and comment I receive on my blog is the origin of Behr's name. 
So here is the story. 

I hate running. And yet, a friend convince me to enter a race here in DC. So in the early spring of 2009, while I spent a horrible amount of time training for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. One weekend, in an effort to motivate me, Mark decided we would conquer Hains Point. "We" being an operative word. You see Mark also hates running, but he didn't foolishly sign up for a dreaded race. So as "we" conquered Hains Point, Mark rode his bike along side of me and a gruesomely slow pace. He got bored, even biked up and back a few times while I chugged along. And then Mark got creative.

"Let's talk about baby names." seriously, this man is a genius!

"Okay," I replied trying to hide my enthusiasm and that I was woefully out of shape.

Somewhere in the conversation, we both agreed that we like the history and heritage that comes with using a family name. So we started throwing out a few, Boorse, Youells, Cotrob, Haesche (pronounced Hey-SHE). Hmmm, we didn't have many winners.

There were also the more common last names that wouldn't make very good first names. And then, we stumbled upon Mark's great-grandmother on his mom's mom's side. Grandma B. Grandma Boorse. Well, we had already ruled out Boorse, but Grandma B's maiden name was Behr and that had a nice ring to it.

We tossed the name a few times. Paired it with a few middle name contenders. And we liked it.

So we decided, in the early Spring of 2009, that our first son would be name Behr. In fact, we felt so accomplished in naming our not-yet conceived child that we ended my run early, turned around and headed back to the car. Double win for me!

And that is the story of how we named Behr.

Other fun facts:
I ran the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler again in 2010, pregnant with Behr.
Behr's middle name is Robert in honor of my Grandfather's brother, who my uncle is also named after.


I am also going to be linking up to small style tomorrow. 
But this post is a day early because tomorrow is Behr's first birthday. Wahoo!

Behr is wearing:
one-piece romper from Baby Gap
socks from See Kai Run
shoes from Robeez via the tot swap

14 comments:

  1. I don't think I knew this story, Shannon! I love it.

    I cannot believe mr behr is almost a year old! Big hugs from NYC.

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  2. Love it!! I always made my husband talk baby names on long drives when we had nothing left to talk about. He wasn't a huge fan. :) I actually just wrote a post on baby names too! Crazy.

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  3. What a sweet story!
    I love the name. And I won't talk about you running a marathon while pregnant. I could barely get off the couch.

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  4. oh my gosh, FINALLY!!! I think i've asked you that question like three times hahaha. Little did I know that you had a little post in store...

    And I love that last picture of you and Behr. I love it.

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  5. I have wondered where little Behr's name came from. I love it. How sweet to have used a family name. I often say that if we have a little girl I want to name her after my great grandma, Lena.

    Baby name planning is so much fun!

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  6. We did the baby names for the yet to be conceived child(ren) thing too... Such a fun yet awkward conversation. Haha. We also plan to do family names. In part because it's more meaningful and in part to avoid falling into the current all the rage baby names trend trap. I don't want my kids to get to kindergarten and there are 5 other kids with the same exact name.

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  7. I love this story! Thanks for sharing :) I was curious how he got the name Behr!

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  8. love this little story! and what a good, solid, family name!

    x

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  9. Thank you all for the sweet, sweet comments.

    I've got a question: Is anyone even going to acknowledge the ridiculousness of our other family name options?

    Could you imagine our "baby cotrob" running around?!?!

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  10. Happy birthday Behr! And I love this story--and your new blog layout! I have not been to the actual site in awhile!

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  11. hehehe that's such a cute story! and it's a great name! :o)
    happy birthday Behr! :o)

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  12. so great! That final shot of you two is so much joy! Happy birthday Behr - great name story too!
    Mel :o)
    needle and nest

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  13. Love the story! Names with history/meaning are the best. And...happy Birthday Behr!!!

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  14. I also love that story. My girl has a family name, too - my great aunt was called Stella (she was my grandmother's sister-in-law). When I announced that was the name we had chosen, though my grandmother said to me, you know, I never liked my sister-in-law much, so this is all rather awkward." Baha. That story is one of my faves about my crazy, opinionated grandmother.

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