What's in a name?

So, we named our son Urban.

ur⋅ban

/ˈɜrbən/ Show Spelled Pronunciati[ur-buhn]–adjective

1.	of, pertaining to, or designating a city or town.

2.	living in a city.

3.	characteristic of or accustomed to cities; citified: He is an urban type.

Origin:
1610–20; < class="ital-inline">urbānus, equiv. to urb- (s. of urbs) city + -ānus

As soon as we found out I was pregnant we started collecting names that we liked in a notebook, and Urban was actually at the top of the boy list from the beginning. Urban is my maternal grandfather, who died when I was in high school. Paul and I met in college, so he never got to meet Grandpa, but when he first learned his name, he thought it was one of the coolest names he had ever heard. I had never really thought twice about his name since I had grown up knowing the name and it just seemed fitting for an old grandpa... So I started thinking about it as a potential name, realizing I have never know anyone else named Urban which was pretty appealing to me, especially since it wasn't a "made up" name and because its a normal word in the English language, everyone knows how to spell it and pronounce it! Plus, anyone that knows Paul and I knows that we are "urban" people who love the city, living in the city, and all things related to cities and being about them. Fitting?

It did take me a little bit to further warm up to the name. I was curious how the family would react - did they like Grandpa's name? Would they think I was a total weirdo? Would the name be easily made fun of by the other kids in school? Would people shorten it to Urb or Urbie? (ew). Would they think we were just huge Florida fans? (Paul pointed out the head football coach there is named Urban Meyer.) Did I want to name my child after a series of 8 popes in the Catholic church? Seriously, these were legitimate questions...

I even wondered if if Grandpa was worthy of being named after. I know that sounds awful, but I had those thoughts. Does the person you name your child after need to have a flawless and noble character, or could he be just a plain nice guy who was a grocery store owner, butcher and good father who loved to play cards and garden? One Saturday Jenn and I were visiting our grandmother in her nursing home over lunch. She was sitting at a table with two of our great aunts: Emma, Grandpa Urban's sister, and Henrietta, his sister-in-law. For some reason the conversation turned to Urban, and Emma started telling us stories about how Urban was her favorite brother - always sticking up for her and carrying her books to school in the snow. Henrietta also echoed Emma's strong feelings toward Urban, both smiling and enjoying telling stories from past times. I knew then that the name was a good choice for our son. I, too, have great memories of Urban, helping him in the garden, picking tomatoes and zucchini, watching football games on lazy Sunday afternoons, going to the horse race track, and playing lots and lots of cards. Urban Kissel as a young dude.

Urban (and Dorothy) Kissel as I remember them best.Our little Urban.

I think Grandpa would be honored...