how Rad got his name

This story actually starts almost 3 1/2 years ago when we found out that we were pregnant with a little boy, Rhett.

Jake and I had a great list of girls names before we found out the Rhett was a boy, but we had no boys names that we could agree on. We made lists, scratched the names off, added new ones, scratched those off and so on.

We finally agreed on Rhett, Jake's best friend's name, and the name of one of my favorite characters Rhett Butler and we love it.

The problem was that that was the ONLY boy name we could agree on, so when we found out that we were having another boy we were stumped at what to name him.

After repeating the same cycle with the lists and scratching names off we decided to narrow the search by deciding to give him a R name like his brother.

One day I asked Jake what he thought of the name Rad. When I was in college I became friends with a guy named Rad and to this day we are very close. Don't you love those relationships that survie no matter how much time lapses between seeing each other? He's a great guy and I've always talked very highly of him to Jake so we both agreed that that was the name that felt right to us.

PS As a funny side note, when Rad and I were in college, we joked that I should name a kid Rad to honor him. (So humble right? :)) It was a joke, but all those years later we now have a kid named Rad. Go figure. :)

So now we have our little fellas, Rhett and Rad. Rhett isn't a common name, so we're used to having to say it twice, spelling it out and occasionally correctting people that "no, we didn't name our son Rat."

And now with Rad meeting new people is a bit of an ordeal. For starters, we typically have to spell his name for folks as everyone thinks they heard us say "Brad" or "Chad" or even "Greg" because there's simply no way we actually said "Rad" (me: "no B, just R-A-D.. Rad"). Once the actual name is finally established, there are 2 typical responses from the general public which follow:

"Whoa, that's Rad!" or "Ha! Are you guys surfers?!"

Yes. We are professional surfers living in a desert known as Arizona.

So regardless of how many times we have to explain ourselves we love the name and we can't imagine him (or Rhett) being named anything else. :)

PS: Just for fun, this is an excerpt from Urban Dictionary: "RAD - really cool, but in a more subtle way. As opposed to extreme or awesome. One of the highest compliments you can give someone. Being rad is like being cool without having to work for it. It's like a natural coolness."

PPS: The original, original Rad was my friends grandfather named Rad Cherry who lived in Kentucky and made moonshine. Here's a picture of him.