What's in a Name

Gabriel Joseph Lanoux

Let me start out by saying that I was convinced we were having a girl. I mean I was certain...so certain that I bought TWO different sets of girl bedding...so certain that we had a named picked out (Catherine Austen) ...so certain that minutes before we went in for the ultrasound I bet David dinner that it would be a girl...so certain that when the ultrasound tech said "Oh this baby's a boy" you could have picked me up off the floor!

I realized that we had a 50/50 shot that the baby would be a boy but it honestly never occurred to me that me the girliest of girls could actually have a boy. After the appt for the ultrasound we had an appt with my ob/gyn. We were a little early so we sat in the waiting room kind of staring at each other and laughing at the thought of a boy. David began reading through Sports Illustrated (sorry I can never remember if you're supposed to underline or puts magazines in quotes) as we waited. Since we hadn't thought about boy names I got the idea to flip through the magazine and find boy names we might like. We began making a list of names we found and names that came to our mind. The initial list included Eli (which I loved but David didn't want people to think we named him after Eli Manning), Nathan, Benjamin, John David, Ian, Cal and Gabriel.

Gabriel

I was sold on Gabriel from the start but David was a bit hesitant because one of his cousins is married to a Gabe. I told him that didn't matter...especially since we only saw him once a year! For the next 2 months I tried to wear David down and convince him our son should be named Gabe. I asked David for additional suggestions but I just couldn't get on board with Vance and Edward (his suggestions). Finally a few months before I was due he agreed to Gabriel! Looking at our sweet baby now there's no possible way he could ever be anything other than Gabriel!

Joseph

Gabriel's middle name is after both of his grandfathers- Alfred Joseph and Curtis Joseph. My middle name (Jo) is after my father and David and I felt it was important to keep that tradition- remember had we had a girl her middle name would have been Austen which is David's middle name. We actually kept the middle name a secret from our families until he was born. It was great being able to surprise everyone!

Lanoux

Lanoux is a variatnt of the name Lanoue.

Last name origin & meaning: French: habitational name from places called La Noue, this name being derived from a Gaulish word nauda ‘water meadow’, ‘boggy place’. This is a Canadian secondary surname for Laigu, Laleu, and Robutel, recorded there since 1687.