I remember growing up watching Anne of Green Gabels movies at my Grandpa’s house. I was so young that I hardly remember the plot line besides a red haired orphan (not to be confused with Annie!) but I do remember her always saying her name was, “Anne with an E.”

While our son’s name will not be Anne with an E, we’ve decided on Jaxson with an X. Perhaps we’re setting him up to have the same response each time people ask his name, just as I do now when people ask, but the name just feels so right. I love the X in there because his nick name won’t be shortened to “Jack” but to “Jax” and that just looks and sounds like a cool guy name to me (plus the one Jax I know on General Hospital isn’t too bad on the eyes! And we all want our kids to be good looking, right?). Jaxson was the name that stood out to me as I went over list after list, it’s a name that gives my heart flutters thinking about my son Jaxson. It just feels right.

Of course, it wasn’t an easy road to officially decide on his name. For a few weeks it was going to be Gabriel Madden, and while I tried to like it for my husband’s sake who picked it out, it didn’t sit right right. I would cringe when we used it in a sentence “testing” it out. I kept thinking about all the awful nicknames people would come up with instead of using the full name. Eventually, Mark agreed that it didn’t feel right for him either. However, he was hesitant using Jaxson because he wanted to pick out his name. Our compromise? We kept the middle name he (and I) loved, Madden, because it perfectly incorporates not only a not-commonly-used-cool-name but Mark’s love of xbox games and watching football (ya know, since the real John Madden was a football announcer in our lifetime). So, Jaxson Madden it is.

It took me a while to get over his entire name ending with “n’s.” Like, I seriously put up polls on the various social networks I’m on to help me decide if it was awful or not. And, even when we had decided it was the right name, I tried to keep it a secret for fear of what others think. Some hate it and say it’s too “rhymey” or don’t flow, and that’s fine, but the more I think about his name the more I love it, just as I fall in love with him more each day. Plus, I figure that a full name is rarely said (except when in trouble or maybe announced when graduating) so who cares if his full name doesn’t “flow” like some people like? They can name their own kid something else :-)

So there you go, that’s what in our little guy’s name. Our Jaxson with an X.