Naming Matthew

When we went to the hospital to have our baby, we still didn't have a name picked out.  We had narrowed it down to Jonathan/John, Matthew, or Ethan.  Jeff quickly scratched Ethan off the list.  So we were debating between Jonathan/John or Matthew. 

If we chose Jonathan, we would call him John.  But I preferred Matthew above Matt.  We liked Matthew above Jonathan, but liked John above Matt.  So if we chose Matthew, would we continue to call him Matthew, or would it quickly be shortened to Matt?

Jeff and I were on the fence, but Tyler adamantly wanted Matthew.  The night he was born we finally decided on the name Matthew.  After everyone left and I was in the hospital with Matthew I looked at him and freaked out: he looked like a John!  I worried we chose the wrong name.  The next morning I called Jeff and told him I wasn't sure on Matthew anymore.  Jeff and I discussed how we would spell Jonathan, and then when we shortened it whether to use Jon or John.  We both liked it shortened to John even though technically Jon is the shortened version of Jonathan. I worried if it was too weird to shorten it to John instead of Jon, but Jeff said it didn't matter.  He said I had the birth certificate form and he would be happy with Matthew or Jonathan/John. I wasn't sure about the Jonathan/John combination and that was enough to tip me back.  So Matthew it was.

As a side note: Rachel's due date was September 9th and Matthew's was September 11th.  Someone once asked what is 9 months before that time...I better beware of that time of year.  I counted back and realized 9 months prior is the week of Christmas.   Matthew and Rachel were Christmas gifts I didn't know I was getting until the next month. 

After we had narrowed our list of names down to three I looked up the meanings of each name.  Apparently both Matthew and Jonathan mean "Gift of God".  I thought that was appropriate since he was our little Christmas gift from God.