Ok, sure, he’s not actually called Oatcake. That’s just an affectionate nickname, that will probably stick and is already morphing into a host of cake based variations sure to embarrass him through his teens. He’s Otis, officially, though still not registered, so we could technically still change our minds and go with Thor or Legend or any of the other helpful suggestions that cropped up over the last nine months.
Naming someone though, is such a massive responsibility. What if he’s CEO of a massive company? Will people take him seriously? What if he’s a rockstar? What if he’s a bit of a nerd and people tease him? We don’t want to add fuel to the fire! What if he’s the most popular kid in school? Will it suit him, will it work? What comes first, the personality, or the name? Does the name shape who they come become, or does everyone just suit their name because you’ve never known anything different? I don’t want him to go to school and be one of 10 Henry’s or Ben’s! (Both were on the list by the way… The long, long list! And before I offend, we love both names, we were clinging at straws as for reasons to discount them). And the more time that went by, the short list just got longer! Is it easier to have named them before their born? What if they don’t look like that name? This kid is lucky we didn’t just stick with ‘potato’, his affectionate bump name, as it seemed to be the only thing we could agree on! After several days of trying out many, many options.. And many, many impatient messages from family (who seemed to struggle with the fact he didn’t have a name far worse than we did), we finally settled on Otis, a name that wasn’t even on any original list! Apparently lengthening the shortlist worked!

It it didn’t quite feel like his name until we had announced it to the world. And we probably still don’t use it often enough, he’ll grow up wondering what sort of idiotic parents name a child after a biscuit carrier for cheese, before realising he’s actually called Otis. I must remember at future parents’ evenings That Oatcake is not his ACTUAL name. Noted.