What's in a name?

What's in a name you ask?  Most people (that I know) just pick a name for their baby with their spouse that they like.  Easy as pie right?  Not so much around here.  Our kids names have to pass what I call the "Christmas Card Test".  Simply put, all our names have to sound good together on the Christmas card...you know -

"Merry Christmas, Love Paige, Paul, Braden, Zachary and Chase"

I have a whole list of "rules" to ensure that none of the boys name are to matchy matchy (Braden, Kaden, Haden...you get the picture, yes?).  They can't end in the same sound, can't start with the same letter, etc. etc.

And then middle names.  I like the idea of having family middle names and honoring someone special in our lives by passing their name along to our children.  Sort of something to aspire to for them I guess.  I also want the first and middle names to sound good together.  

Lastly, the last name.  Of course I had to make that seemingly easy decision difficult as well.  We decided to hyphenate Braden's last name since Paul and I were not married (or really even together) when he was born.  And then with Zachary we wanted to keep it the same as Braden's, and then obviously Chase is not going to have a different last name than his brothers.  At this point I probably won't even change my last name when Paul and I do get legally married, or I will hyphenate my last name as well.  So then the choice was either Schleifer-Bell or Bell-Schleifer.  Bell-Schleifer sounded like 'Bill Schleifer' to me, and that just sounded like a fat, gross plumbers name...so Schleifer-Bell it was ;-)

So, What's in a name? 

*Braden Richard Schleifer-Bell (after my grandfather - mom's dad)

*Zachary Charles Schleifer-Bell (after Paul's grandfather - father's father)

*Chase Weldon Schleifer-Bell (after my dad - his middle name)  I also got a whole family history lesson from my aunt, and Weldon was also my great-grandfathers middle name, and probably came from somewhere else before then. 

The new 3 Amigos - Paul has been replaced