Thursday, August 27, 2009

The Story Behind The Name

Several people have complimented us on our name selection (thanks!) and asked if it was a family name or how we arrived at our choice. I thought I would post "The Story Behind The Name" ... I think it's a great story, hope you enjoy!

We wanted a name that was unique, but not too hard to spell or pronounce. Easton is a name that I have loved forever - growing up with 2 brothers I saw them at baseball practices/games constantly, and I recall seeing the brand "Easton" on one of their baseball bats. It was a black and silver bat, and the name "EASTON" was written across the end quite clearly - that image is still vivid to me, and looks a lot like this:


When I was a young girl, I decided that I liked the name and would one day name my son Easton. Thankfully, Jason loved the name when I mentioned it to him, so we decided months ago that we would use it if we had a boy. We are hoping that we have a future Major Leaguer growing in my belly, but even if he doesn't like baseball he's still got a strong, unique name. However; anyone that knows my family or Jason should know that baseball is something we all love, so odds are the baseball passion continues to the next generation. I foresee a lot of baseball practices and dirty uniforms in our future :-)

We chose Archer after one of our Tunstall High School teachers. Jason and I met in Mr. Archer's class when I was in the 10th grade and he was in the 11th. We were just friends at the time. Mr. Archer was one of our favorite teachers and he taught drafting and architectural drawing classes. I must admit, Architectural Drawing was not my strong suit, but Jason was actually pretty good at it.

Funny story: for our final exam we were asked to draw a RANCH style house and I proceeded to draw an elaborate two story house with a twisting staircase, I just loved those winding stairways and had to include it in my final. For those that didn't catch the issue, a ranch home is supposed to be one story, not two stories :-) Mr. Archer knew that I tried so hard, but just didn't quite have the talent (and obviously had problems following directions!). I believe I ended up with a B in the course, which I definitely didn't deserve, but he rewarded my determination and creativity. Mr. Archer's support and faith in his students has followed us to this day, and we will never forget him. We can't wait to tell him that we are using his namesake for our son's middle name - he will be thrilled!

We will call our son by his first name, Easton, and we hope he likes his name as much as we do. We are looking forward to one day telling him the story of how we chose his name!

3 comments:

Terri Steffes said...

I am so glad you told us the story. I love it. I have two babies named for me, one using Oliver (my maiden name) and one using Terry (except mine's Terri). It is the nicest honor given to a teacher.

You look great, Keely!

Gayle from Southern Thresholds said...

A Special story for a special little guy...he has no idea how lucky he truly is to have parents like you/Jason...but I'll be sure and tell him :)

Jason said...

To add to this story; I first had Mr. Archer in the 7th Grade at Brosville Middle School. I loved his class. He taught Technology, Wood Shop 1 and 2 and Mechanical and Architectural Drafting. I took all his classes. I have kept in contact with him over the years and consider him to be a good roll model for kids. He told me a few years back that he still had my Senior picture that I gave him, mine was one of 5 that he kept.