I *heart* Maddox's name

Maddox Gloria Mc.......

When she was born I'm sure there were more than a few people who immediately said: "Maddox?  HUH?".  So, I will tell the story of how she was given the name, and why I love it so much.

When I first found out that I was pregnant, my husband had been in Korea for about 1.5 weeks.  I wasn't even late, I just KNEW I was pregnant.  I can't even explain how, because I wasn't having crazy symptoms, feelings, cravings....I just knew.  Plus, there were all these stars aligning and people saying things that seemed like fate was telling me I was preggo.  My mother even told me that she had a dream that I was pregnant the whole time Marshall was in Korea!  Lo and behold....about 5 pregnancy tests later....I believed it.

Once the shock and excitement started to settle in, and I realized that I was going to have to finish graduate school pregnant and alone, and I had NO idea what that meant...... we started talking about names.  Naturally, Marshall mentioned that he had always just assumed that he would carry on the McIntyre "MGM" initial-dom.  Since my name was Mary Gregory at my birth, I took this as a sign that MGM-ness must be maintained!  

In the meantime we wanted to refer to the baby as something besides "blastocyst", "embryo", "fetus", etc.  We wanted something more personal that we could relate and connect to.  That is how "Babymac" came into our lives.  We decided that no matter what we would name this future child, we would keep it a secret and always refer to her/him as "Babymac" until her/his birth.

I became the internet baby stalker.  Every website that had any sort of information on pregnancy, birth, end-of-your-life-as-you-know-it, etc, I would spend my free time reading.  I can only imagine what kind of work I would have put out my last semester at U of M if I hadn't been pregnant.....but alas, I was sleeping when I wasn't in class and eating, or at the library eating, or waking up at night and writing and EATING.  Ha!  I still got straight A's so I kicked some gosh-darn-un-preggo-butt that semester.

So.....I'm getting to it, I promise.  Marshall and I made lists of names that we liked, and would go through them with each other.  We each had veto power, and when you are limiting yourselves to first names starting with M that must go well with a middle name starting with G...your choices are limited.  We both refused to use any names that were in the top 100 of popular names in the past year.....which knocked out Madison, Madeline, etc.  We also are not the type of people to make up a name out of the blue, or misconstrue a name by spelling it with silent letters, or wacky spellings to make it unique.  I absolutely CANNOT divulge the names that we did not choose, because they will quite possibly be used for any future child/children.  But, I can tell you about Mdx (which is my abbreviation because I am a lazy typist). 

At the beginning, my housemates at Vail House had a blast guessing what Babymac was going to be named.  It was almost a nightly discussion at the dinner table.  I remember someone guessing "Murky" and I choked on my tofu because I laughed so hard.  Another person guessed "Magnolia" and I honestly considered it for a minute, which led them to believe that Babymac's name was going to be Magnolia.

When I mentioned Maddox to Marshall, I had it in mind as a boy's name.  I told Marshall that it was my Grandmother's maiden name, but that I didn't really know anyone with that as a first name.  To me, Maddox sounded strong and masculine.  But, Marshall insisted that he really liked it as a girl's name, not for a boy.  I had a few other girl names that I liked better, but the more and more I said Mdx Mc......and imagined a girl- it just grew on me.  We had other boy names as well...I just didn't know what we would pick.  I wish I knew more about my Grandmother.  I wish I knew her when she was my age, and had young kids and a marriage to manage.  I've seen pictures, she was so beautiful and vibrant, so full of life!  I have imagined what I would have known if my grandmother could have written a blog when she was 29 (my age- ACK!), what would she have said?  What would her children have known about her that they never found out?  Ah........anyways.....

So, at 19 weeks, when I drove 1 hour to the gender ultrasound appointment all by myself, I figured we'd finally find out WHO this baby was that I was carrying around.  I had already felt him/her kick and move around, and seen one ultrasound and heard the heartbeat multiple times.  It only seemed fair that I should be granted a LITTLE more info about Babymac finally!  Well, Babymac did not want to be bothered that day!  She/He was sound asleep with legs crossed and the cord going between the legs.  The ultrasound tech did all the measurements and then informed me that I would not be able to find out the gender that day, because it was simply too hard to tell!  I knew that our insurance was not going to cover another ultrasound unless it was medically necessary, and I was heartbroken!

I couldn't call Marshall, so I called my sister, I was SO upset!  She listened to me, and told me "Sometimes we don't get what we want!", which was NOT what I wanted to hear at that moment!  Finally Marshall called me and listened to me freak out for a few minutes....then he calmly told me that we would just pay to have another ultrasound done so we could find out the gender...and that was that.  The next week I drove into Detroit to a private ultrasound clinic, where they offered a recorded ultrasound session on DVD, and a guarantee on gender-determination....and I saw the most beautiful clear pictures of Babymac!  She moved around and kicked her legs and opened and closed her mouth.  It was so beautiful!  It was so obvious that she was a SHE, and it was so obvious that she was a Maddox!  I called Marshall immediately and told him that we were having a GIRL named MADDOX!!

The name Gloria just sounds beautiful to me when I say it, and that is what made me love it.  It also has a musical meaning, referring to the Latin: "Gloria in excelsis Deo" or "Glory to God in the highest".  There are many musical works which are titled "Gloria" and from what I have heard they are all inspiring and beautiful works.  I was completely at ease giving Maddox Gloria as her middle name, it just seems right.

So, we have the family name, and we have the musical/religious name.  It is perfect.  She is perfect.