First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who helped us decide on a name for the Little Boy. Along with breast feeding and circumcision, choosing a name for a child is probably the most important decision a new parent has to make. We received countless blog comments (I know because I counted), thousands of Facebook Wall posts, and 60 people voted on the naming poll here on this blog (I didn’t think I even knew 60 people!). Even if we didn’t go with your vote, having everyone’s feedback very much helped us make this agonizingly difficult decision. So thank you.
I was clueless. I couldn’t think of a single name that I liked. Convinced that nice names only existed for girls, I tasked Jan with starting the ball rolling by making a “short” list of names that she liked. She armed herself with a name dictionary and took her time. I then narrowed her list down to 8, added Finn and Kurt, and that was where we got the 10 options for the poll. At this point, we thought we still had two weeks left to choose a nice name. Little Boy had different plans.
If he hadn’t arrived 11 days early, all this deliberation could have been avoided. I highly recommend any prospective parents out there to chose a name before your child is born. We were forced to enlist the “Let’s look at him when he’s born and choose the name that best fits his face and personality” technique. This doesn’t work. For one thing, there is no perfect name that fits their face. Any one of many different names may work perfectly well and you can drive yourself bat-shit crazy trying to find the one “right” name. Secondly, babies are ugly when they’re born. Yes, I said it. Nobody thinks their baby is ugly, but they are. We thought Emily was the cutest thing in the world. A year later we looked at photos of her from the beginning and thought, “Ouch, I didn’t realize she looked like that!“. Newborns are purple gremlin-mole creatures and the only names that do their slimy faces justice are things like Periwinkle, Formaldehyde, or Chupacabra. Lastly, babies don’t have personalities when they are born. Newborns sleep 23 hours a day and spend the rest of their time eating and shitting. Good luck finding a name that goes along with that kind of “personality”. But I digress…
The poll results started racking up and, in a completely separate procedure, we started the arduous process of elimination. Some names wouldn’t go over well in Spain. Some names didn’t fit his face. Some names didn’t fit our family. It was fascinating to see the results of the poll and analyze which countries voted for which names. I was going to create a series of pie charts to display the results… and then I realized that I have two kids now. Our hearts eventually whittled the field down to four choices: Jacob, Rafa, Sebastian, and Zachary. And we loved them all. Rafa was the only Spanish name left on our list and it was short, fun, and worked well with Zamrycki. But the only reference anyone seems to have for this name is Rafa Nadal. Gone. Zachary had the advantage of starting with a Z (those would be some kick-ass initials) and shortened to the frisky yet amiable Zack. But saying “Zachary Zamrycki” 20 times made the whole thing seem rather forced. Gone.
For the past 24 hours, we have been bouncing back and forth between Jacob and Sebastian. Jacob flows nicely into Zamrycki, is as Hebrew as it gets, and shortens to the rough-and-ready Jake. Sebastian is sensitive, exists in both English and Spanish with similar pronunciations, and can shorten to the quirky yet awesome Seb (or Bastian or Sebas). I took the opportunity to ask the opinion of everyone I met: Emily’s teacher, our friends, the pediatrician, the grocer, our doorman. I even made typeface charts for both names:
Alternately yet definitively deciding on one and then the other all day long, Jan pronounced there was nothing left to do but toss a coin. I was very much against this! I wanted to think it out until we came to a satisfactory conclusion, but Jan’s reasoning was that, if the coin chose a name that we weren’t 100% happy with after sleeping on it, we would know that the other name was the right one. Heads: Sebastian. Tales: Jacob. The rest is history.
Sebastian Zamrycki. Jan thinks this is a name that could win a Nobel Prize.
Sebastian is a beautiful and strong name. I particularly liked the choice. And hope that you all are well.
A special hug to Jan.
Welcome, Sebastian!
Yes, indeed. Sebastian, welcome to the family. Be good to your mother and life will be good to you.
With love and kisses,
Nana Adrian and Poppy Phil
I like it. I’ll bet you can guess why. It’s the Greek form of Augustus. The only cooler name, sticking with the Greek thing, would be Basileus. Basil. I guess I should have suggested this. Oops.
So when’s visiting hours and all that jazz? How’s Jan?
He’s just gorgeous. Welcome Sebastian x
I like it. Sebastian Zamrycki – definitely has a ring to it. Congratulations to you all and we look forward to meeting him. Lots of love. xx
Has someone been rereading Brideshead Revisited?
Fantastic name, it has so much character and potential!
love to you all! xx
Are you certain he’s a he?? Did you really look??
We still can’t quite believe it but are thrilled, nonetheless, to welcome Emily’s brother, Sebastian.
Mazel Tov! With much love . . .
Of course, going with Sebastian means that Jan has to change her name to Moonchild. Small sacrifice for such a beautiful baby. He’s really lovely.
Although, Chupacabra is also pretty cool. . .maybe a middle name?
Mazel Tov again!!
A name fit for a king! Love it.
xXx
Great name!! I am slightly biased as this was my first choice on the vote! Here is what I found on Wikipedia, some interesting facts on Sebastian. Perhaps Emily should be renamed Belle!
* Sebastian (film), a Swedish 1995 film based on the novel by Per Knutsen
* Sebastian (1968 film), also known as Mr. Sebastian
* Sebastiane, a British 1976 film directed by Derek Jarman, focusing on the life of Saint Sebastian
* Sebastian (novel) a novel by fantasy author Anne Bishop
* “Sebastian”, a rock song by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel
* Sebastian Holdings Inc, the biggest shareholder of Vivendi Universal
* Sebastian the Ibis, the University of Miami mascot
* Sebastian Miniatures, small ceramic sculptures created in New England
In places:
* Sebastian County, Arkansas
* Sebastian, Florida
* Sebastian, Texas
* San Sebastián, Spain
* Sankt Sebastian, Germany
* Sankt Sebastian, Austria, Styria, Austria
In people:
* Sebastian (name), the first or last name of many people
* Saint Sebastian, a Christian saint and martyr
* Sebastianus, the Roman usurper
* Sebastian of Portugal, Sebastian I, King of Portugal
* Sebastian (musician), stage name of Danish musician Knud Grabow Christensen
* Sebastian Telfair, NBA basketball player
* Sebastian (rapper), an American rapper
* Sebastian (Swedish singer), a Swedish singer and performer, Sebastian Karlsson
* Sebastian (porn star), the pseudonym used by Simon Rex in erotic films
* SebastiAn (French electro artist)
* Sin With Sebastian also known as “Sebastian”, a German musician.
* Mr. Sebastian, professional name of body pierce artist Alan Oversby
* Sebastian Bach, former lead singer of Skid Row
In fictional characters:
* Sebastian (Crab), a character in Disney’s The Little Mermaid
* Sebastian Love, a fictional assistant to the Prime Minister in the television sketch show Little Britain
* Serena Sebastian, the English name of the anime character Sonoko Suzuki in the English adaptations of Detective Conan (Case Closed)
* Sebastian, Alexandra Cabot’s cat in the Josie and the Pussycats comic book cartoon series
* Sebastian, Lilly’s butler in Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
* Saint-Sébastien
* Belle & Sebastian, Scottish indie pop band
* Belle and Sebastian (anime)
* Sebastianism, the belief that a sleeping king will return to save his people
Congratulations!! You are probably reading this at 3am during one of many sleep interruptions so I will write quietly so as not to disturb everyone…
Welcome to the giddy world of having a boy – eeek!! Best tip -wear trainers (lots of running about), read up on steam trains and invest in shin pads,ear plugs and superheroes and you will have lots of fun!
Be gr8 to see you – maybe catch a quick flight to Cardiff (via Bristol I s’pose)
lov Jen (KL escapee) and 5 year old Daniel xxx
congratulations on your second child. You must be feeling a very proud dad now! Have a great week. Wil
I love it!!!!! Welcome Sebastian Zamrycki