In the hospital, they used my last name when labeling Soren’s bassinet. I took it as a sign that Soren should take my last name, but Tim disagreed. He won.
Last February, Tim and I created a very important Google doc. (Shared docs online are one of my favorite ways to communicate.) The document’s file name was “Names,” and its purpose was to store potential monikers for our offspring. Neither of us went into this game set on any particular names — but I did have a policy of family names only. I’d long ago had dreams of birthing twin girls and naming them after my two grandmothers — Sarah Shaw (who would go by Sally) and Mildred (Millie). But alas, our baby was not twin girls, and not even a girl at all. I’d never thought of boy names before, since I’d always planned to have all girls. But during the pregnancy I had a hunch our baby was a male, so we didn’t exclude the gender during our name research.
So with our laptops fired up, we logged on to the LDS Family Search website and started sifting through our ancestors’ aliases. When we found a name one or both of us liked, we added it to our document. The Danish names were by far our favorites. What a relief to find Tim and I agreed on most of the names on our list.
Soren was the frontrunner throughout my pregnancy. Krogh Soren Sorensen is my great-great-great-great grandfather, and we found his name by following my mother’s mother’s line. He lived in Denmark from 1745 to 1826, and that’s about all we know. There are a number of other Sorens who precede him in my family tree, so maybe we’ll do a little research to learn more about the men behind the name.
We had a few other names we liked a lot, but both of us had a hunch our boy would end up as Soren. Now, two months post birth, we’re still crazy about the name (and the boy who bears it). When people ask his name, it’s always fun to hear their reactions. Some have never heard it before, some wonder if we’re fans of Søren Kierkegaard. Others recognize it from their own family history (and some even teach us how to pronounce it in Danish).
It’s a little overwhelming to choose the name that will be attached to — and possibly define — your child. It’s such a shame when someone hates his or her name. So far, we have no regrets about our decision. Let’s hope Soren agrees!
I love the name Søren. (Mostly because I am a fan of Kierkegaard.)
I have met three Søren’s in my life. One was a baby, who is now 4 and lives in Cambridge. The others were college age, and they seemed to like their name quite well.
I’ve loved that name since my mission when I taught a woman who had a son named Soren (her name was Cezanne!). Later, when Rob and I looked for baby names, I learned that both Rob and I have a “Soren” on our family trees – the same number of generations back, in fact.
I don’t remember why Soren wasn’t on our list of names! I also wanted a family name for our baby, but we decided we wanted it from a family member we knew. Henry is my Grandfather’s middle name.