[name_m]Aleksander[/name_m] [name_u]Blaise[/name_u] [name_m]Ernest[/name_m] [name_m]Hugo[/name_m] (“Blaise”)
[name_u]Blaise[/name_u] was by far the most challenging of our kids to name! We had a short list that seemed impossible to narrow down. We wanted a name that matched the uniqueness and European feel of his siblings: [name_f]Mariel[/name_f], [name_f]Corah[/name_f], and [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m]. In the end, [name_u]Blaise[/name_u] was a name we’d loved throughout the pregnancy and one that we talked over and researched during a long summer road trip across Europe. Since he was born in [name_u]September[/name_u], I wanted a name that felt like autumn and [name_u]Blaise[/name_u] reminds me of the beautiful fall colors and campfires in the crisp air. We love the history, [name_u]Christian[/name_u] connection, and the stories of both St. [name_u]Blaise[/name_u] and [name_u]Blaise[/name_u] [name_m]Pascal[/name_m], as well as [name_u]Blaise[/name_u] in Arthurian legend. All four of our kids have subtle, but interesting, place names, so [name_u]Blaise[/name_u] has [name_u]Blaise[/name_u] [name_m]Castle[/name_m] in the [name_u]England[/name_u] (and several places in France). His four-year-old brother called him [name_u]Alex[/name_u] months before he was born, so we had to include [name_m]Aleksander[/name_m], with this spelling to reflect his European half (Nikolai actually thought there would surely be twins, which he named [name_u]Alex[/name_u] and Elsa!). [name_m]Ernest[/name_m] and [name_m]Hugo[/name_m] are his great-grandfathers, who both hold very special places in our hearts. We wanted him to have strong men to help guide him through life, so he got four names in the end! He was almost [name_u]Benjamin[/name_u], a name I’ve loved the longest, but since he’s the “Benjamin of the family,” we call him [name_m]Benji[/name_m] as a nickname too!
We often end up calling him the full [name_m]Aleksander[/name_m] [name_u]Blaise[/name_u] because we’ve found we love both names so much 