A new leaf has arrived!

When my husband and I found out we were expecting our first in 2012, we set out to set some guidelines for choosing a name. My husband has a very common name and calling it in class or any place, really, would yield multiple people looking to see who had called them. My name is a bit unusual and I spend a good portion of the time spent in the presence of employers, patients, co-workers, classmates, etc correcting them.
What we decided was this- no overly common names, no difficult to pronounce names, and we wanted something that was in line with our shared heritage. For that, we opted to stick with mostly Scottish, Irish, or Welsh names and the middle name would be selected from our family tree.
My husband found a great name for our oldest, Callum. I had my heart set on a specific name for his middle name- eying my father's maternal line for the namesake. Alexander. After Alexander Brady, my second great grandfather.
Alexander had a rough beginning- rumored to be sold into indentured servitude at a young age. He escaped and worked for the railroads, working his way across the country and eventually settling in Marysville, Washington in 1901 as their preacher at the Congregational church. Alexander battled his demons all his life, and in 1932 starved himself, ultimately causing his death.

Alexander Brady

News of our second child came in October of 2014. We were having another boy. Names were more difficult this time around but the middle name, was again, the first selected. Milton - after my husband's paternal grandfather. Milton served in the military in 1944 and went on after to run the grocery in Esbon, Kansas.

Left: Milton Rogers

Owen is a long-standing name in my family- on my mother's maternal line. There is at least one in every generation in the direct line, for now, five generations; sometimes as the first name, sometimes as the middle name.

We wanted to incorporate something of our history into something of our future. We wanted something that was rooted in our ancestry. I hope that someday when we tell our kids where their names come from that it sparks an interest in finding out where they came from. In the very least, an interest to know the people they are named after.

Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to the newest leaf in our tree- Owen Milton Rogers. Born June 3, 2015, in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

Owen

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"There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children - one is roots, and the other, wings." -- Hodding S. Carter