Introducing...

We have chosen a name! Introducing...

Oskar Eon Balto Ilvedson Daly

Yes, you read that right: he has three middle names. We are those parents, the 21st century version of '60s hippie parents who named their child Sunshine Rainbow Flower Blossom.

Oskar is a solid Scandinavian name, particularly with the K spelling (which shouldn't trip up American's trying to pronounce it). Anders and Oskar sound great as a pair, and we liked the Α to Ω aspect of the two names together. Oskar was also the name of Corinne's paternal grandfather who immigrated from Norway in the early 20th century. It is more popular in the US than Anders - #181 (for the American spelling Oscar) vs #745 (for Anders) in 2014 - but still uncommon enough that he might be the only Oskar (or Oscar) in his school.

Eon is where our real nerd shows through. We set ourselves a pretty high bar for interesting names with Anders Rocket, and we wanted to stay with a science or space middle name. Eon is just cool. Scientifically, it means a billion years, or more colloquially, a really long time. This reflects how long we have worked and waited for him to arrive. It also is used to mark astronomical time periods, and this certainly qualifies as major line of demarcation in the life of our family. Thanks to Jason & Tara for the awesome suggestion!

Balto is a name Anders chose, based on a book he had just read about Balto, the sled dog. Balto (the dog) was actually named after Norwegian-Sami explorer Samuel Balto who helped explore Greenland, so it even fit with our overall theme. We have a college friend whose parents let each of their kids provide one middle name to each of their younger siblings, so that put the idea in our head to use Anders's suggestion in that way. If Anders had his way, his brother would be named Balto Asteroid Ilvedson Daly.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions in the naming contest! They were lots of fun to read and did inspire our final choice. We'll do a separate post with the naming contest winners.

- Mike, Corinne, Anders, and Oskar