Lee

Many years ago my grandfather was the editor of our small hometown newspaper. Every week he wrote an editorial for the front page, and when his three grandchildren were born, the editorial was dedicated to them that week. When I was born, he wrote about how he had missed his chance to have a grandchild named after him (long story). His name was Stanley, but he went by Lee. I had always considered giving one of my children his name as a middle name, but when I was pregnant with Isaac my cousin prematurely gave birth to her son who only lived six days. She gave him the middle name of Lee, so I felt like the name was off-limits then.

We chose Levi's name because we liked it, and really gave no consideration to my grandfather's name. Sure, it crossed my mind, but it wasn't a deciding factor. I never thought we would call him Lee. 

I should have known better. Rodney and I have a tendency to call our children anything but their given name. We just have a thing for nicknames and they both have had many. One typically evolves into another. For instance, for a while we called Levi  Leland, which turned into Lee-Lander, which turned into Lander. Every nickname has a phase, but a few months ago we started calling him Lee and it has stuck. Apparently we call him Lee so often that when people ask Isaac what his brother's name is, he answers with Lee most of the time. 

Of course now it always makes me think of my grandfather and I wonder if he's smiling down from heaven knowing that his name lives on in his great-grandchild.