Baby Ben

Since we've already told a ton of people, we're going to make it official on the blogosphere: the baby's name will be Benjamin Miles.

After naming Jack after both of our grandfathers, it feels a little weird to say we just like the name, but that's the truth. As a teacher, I've had a lot of possible names ruined for me over the years. For example, I would never name a baby Tyler, Taylor, or Trevor (what is it about T names that inspire troublemakers?), but I've never had a "bad" Ben. Every Ben I've ever had in class has been a sweet kid, sometimes misunderstood, but always with a kind heart and good intentions. Which is good because I've always liked the name.

Once we decided on Ben, we had a few months of uncertainty about the middle name. We both really like Linus as a middle name, but J.J. Abrams ruined that combo for us. If we named our son Benjamin Linus, we wouldn't hear the end of it from our fellow Lost fans. We also like the name Harrison, but there was already a president (and not a very good one) named Benjamin Harrison. So on the drive from Myrtle Beach to Charleston, we settled on Miles. As with everything, once we decided, we knew it was perfect.

So, our little monkey-to-be will be Benjamin Miles and we'll call him Ben. Jack, it appears, will be calling him Baby Ben because that's how he constantly refers to him.