So, what’s the deal with the name “Roman Mateo”?
As I’ve mentioned before, my journey to choosing Logan’s name was pretty boring. His dad and I searched through baby name books, discussed lots of possibilities, realized our ability to agree on a name was just as difficult as agreeing on literally anything else in life, and finally settled on a name I had loved since I was young and he didn’t seem to hate. The name “Logan” doesn’t carry much meaning, and his middle name “James” was chosen to honor his grandpa who passed away and match his uncle’s middle name. That’s about it.
Choosing a baby name with a life partner is a lot different – a lot more time was spent going back and forth between possibilities, and a lot more effort was focused on the meaning of the name. Our requirements came down to:
1) A name that doesn’t remind Donnie of any drug addicts, alcoholics, or generally annoying/deadbeat people.
2) A name that doesn’t start with “L” or sound too similar to “Logan.”
3) A name that sounds good in both English and Spanish.
4) A name no one else in our giant family has already “claimed.”
5) A name not too popular, but not so unpopular that he wouldn’t be able to spell it.
After months of deliberations (yes, it took over 20 weeks to come up with a name), we narrowed it down to Rowan, Ronan, and Roman. I liked all three of those names equally, so I let Donnie make the final call, and he chose Roman. He also came up with “Matthew” or the Spanish equivalent “Mateo” for the middle name. I wanted to honor the baby’s Spanish and Mexican heritage, so we chose to go with Mateo.
Roman, while a unique and rare name, is climbing the popularity charts slowly but surely. It means “strong,” and now that I’ve gotten to know him for the last 11 weeks, I know that name holds true. Mateo means “gift of God,” and everyone who has ever come in contact with him can see why that meaning is suitable for him as well. Baby Roman is my strong gift from God – he overcame my extreme illness during the pregnancy and was born perfectly healthy. He was by far the best part of my first year of marriage, a symbol of our love for one another and faith that as a couple, we could overcome anything.
On April 3, 2018, at almost nine months pregnant, Donnie and I sat at my parents’ kitchen table staring at his cell phone in horror as we watched the live coverage of a shooting at the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California, where he works. I sat there in stunned silence, thanking God that he was not at work that day. The whole incident took place in the exact part of the YouTube campus where Donnie would eat lunch almost every day. From that moment on, I knew that there was something out there protecting us, protecting our little family, and protecting our soon-to-be-born “precious gift.”
Every once in a while – well, to be honest, almost every day – I confuse the boys’ names because they sound so similar. Even so, I don’t regret for a single minute choosing that name for my little boy. When we got married last year, I never pictured that a year from then, I’d be sitting on the couch, nursing little Roman in my lap, shakily eating wedding cake over his head with my non-dominant hand. He is the most amazing thing that has happened over the last year, and I am so excited to see the wonderful things he’s going to experience in his lifetime.
