Can You Say That Again?

(This post was started by Zach and then finished by Kate.)
Yep, that's Anders Timothy Danielson. No, no... AHN-durrz. Rhymes with "wanders" or "ponders."

I could've guessed the response we'd get from telling our friends and family Anders's name: Zach's Swedish and/or Minnesota-bred people and our friends from the Swedish North Park crowd would love it and be immediately familiar with the name. They probably all grew up knowing someone named Anders. On the other hand, my people from Michigan would have never heard the name and might have mixed reactions.

Anders is the Scandinavian form of Andrew, and it means masculine or courageous. We're not offended if you've never heard of it. It's something of a family name, since his Swedish Granini's maiden name is Anderson. The Swedes got their last names depending on who their fathers were: Daniel's Son became Danielson, Anders's Son became Anderson. So the name has been around awhile! My preference is for names that have some real meaty history behind them, but that are also less common nowadays.

Timothy, Anders's middle name, is a Greek name meaning "to honor God," and especially after these last few days, we do honor Him. Timothy is also my Daddy, as good a role model as our little boy could ever have. Like his older brother, we hope that Anders carries this name proudly.

For short, we're calling him Ando. That's AHN-doe, just like Hiro Nakamura's sidekick. Just another silly little nickname like Izey.

And here's a little English lesson from this grammar-sensitive teacher: When a name, like Anders, ends in "s" and you want to show possession, you still add an apostrophe and an additional "s"--like "Anders's dirty diaper" or "Miles's adorable smile." The only exceptions to that rule are ancient names like Jesus or Ceasar Augustus, to which you would only add an apostrophe--like "Jesus' teachings."

After all that, I do want to say that if you mispronounce, misspell, or mispunctuate Anders's name, we will probably barely take notice, so no worries!

Oh yeah, and Thor is still perfectly acceptable.