R is for Rhett


Although there's no major significance behind his name, I wanted to blog about how the littlest member of our family became Rhett Kauffman.

It's no secret that our other boys have unique names.  I wouldn't call them weird by any means, but Brantley and Holden are definitely not common.  As someone who has a super common name, that's exactly how I like it.  We wanted a similarly unique name for 3.0.

Early in my pregnancy, even before we knew he was a boy, Craig suggested the name Rhett.  I wasn't sold, mainly because I like multiple-syllable names, especially with our one-syllable last name.  Rhett Sides was just so short.  But Craig was persistent.  He said it sounded like the name of an athlete.  He also said the name had been a favorite of his since he was younger.  As the days passed, the name grew on me and by the time we learned of our baby's gender, I had finally agreed that Rhett is what we'd name him.  (We didn't have a girl name, fyi.)

The middle name, Kauffman, has pretty big significance to our city (Kansas City).  As most people know, it's the name of our major league baseball stadium: Kauffman Stadium.  And we are pretty big Royals fans around here!  But the stadium is actually named after Ewing Marion Kauffman, who did quite a few things for Kansas City including establishing the Royals as a baseball team in 1969.

Much like Rhett, I wasn't initially sold.  Although I liked the name itself and the connection to our city, I worried about it being a bit too cheesy.  Furthermore, Rhett is kind of like Brett; George Brett is a Kansas City Royals legend.  I didn't want people thinking we went overboard on the Royals connections.

Nonetheless, a few days after Craig suggested it, I was again sold.  It was official: our baby boy would be Rhett Kauffman.

So you could say Craig 100% named this baby.  After naming the other two, it was only fair I let him name one. 😉

A few interesting facts:

Brantley is the name of a country music signer (Brantley Gilbert).  Rhett is the last name of a country music singer (Thomas Rhett).

Holden is a character in the book Catcher in the Rye (Holden Caulfield).  Rhett is a character in Gone with the Wind (Rhett Butler).

We kept Brantley's name super secret until birth.  We told a few people with Holden, but it was still pretty secret.  Although I didn't publicly broadcast Rhett's name unless someone asked, it was the least secret of the three after Craig let it slip to our neighbors at a firepit last spring.


So there you go!  That's how our littlest became Mr. Rhett Kauffman Sides.
 
Inspiration behind our other boys' names:

10 comments:

  1. I love that you picked such different but not hard to pronounce names! That's why we liked Natalie (only to find out it was making a come back). Not too common, but not unusual. Love the story behind all the boys names!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know we always talk about our kids names being different and loving it but you really do have the coolest boys names, ever! And kudos to Craig for naming #3 :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very interesting! I loved learning about how his name came about!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the name Rhett! It was on my short list of boy names both pregnancies but Drew vetoed it. It's pretty neat that Craig came up with the name and how. He's a lucky boy!

    ReplyDelete
  5. And you let Rhett slip out in a text convo. ;)
    That said. I freaking LOVE his name! I love how it came about, I love that it's the main character in Gone With the Wind (one of my all time favorites). And, I adore that Kauffman is him middle name. Just perfect!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love how your husband picked his name (more so than you, really). Most men aren't really into names and can be pushed to one or another. I however love Rhett and think it's perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love how you decided on his name! And I love that it was almost all Craig's idea. I guess if we had a #3, I'd like Seth choose that time too ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love it! All three of your boys have great names!

    ReplyDelete