Today Ava Has A (Nick)Name

I've told you the origins of "Gravy" before, but as your mom and I were talking today we realized as quickly as your learning and developing, it may be a while before you learn your own name. 

You're going to yell at me for this, someday.

A-V-A, three letters. Simple enough, right? Wrong. 

Not when we've come up nearly a dozen nicknames that we call you regularly. 

We were driving down Everhard Road, on our way to Robek's for a smoothy when we laughed as we ran through the list on nicknames. We joked about how old you might be before you know your own name. 

We likened it to your cat McGee who has nearly as many nicknames. 

By now, you're probably thinking "Enough with the back story, what are the nicknames?" 

Let's see how many of these we still use by the time your old enough to read this:

• Avy
• Avy-Gravy
• Wavy Gravy
• Gravy
• Grav-O
• Av-O Grav-O
• Babe-O
• Graves
• Gravy Baby
• A-Bug
• Buggers
• Ava Lou Bob (you can thank Grandpa Fenner for that one)

 Which of these do you want on the back of your high school hoody?

As I type this, I realized I have told you about of your countless nicknames, but have never enlightened you to the  origins of your name. 

You can thank your mom and a Pro Football Hall of Famer for your name. How do the two tie in to each other? Let me tell you. 

We knew before we got married that we wanted kids. Many conversations occurred about names and what we liked and didn't like.  

When we knew your mom was pregnant, the conversations took on a whole new meaning. The drill-down truly began. It's a nerve wracking thing.  A name. Seems simple enough until you're the one making the decision. It's not something that you can go back and change if you decide you don't like it. It's the first truly life-long decision we've ever had to make.

We didn't take it lightly. 

Let's fast forward a bit - March 19, 2012 - "It's a Girl." 

Now we know we can eliminate boy names. Your mom studied names for a while; we'd bounce what we liked off of each other and eliminate the ones that didn't stick. 

One day your mom looks at me and says "Ava." At first, I eliminated it. Not sure what it was, but something about it didn't sit with me.

It's one your mom really liked so even though I cast it aside, your mom kept it in her stable of names. Every so often she'd bring it up and ask again, and each time I'd shoot it down. 

Then, one day that all changed.  

It was Monday, April 10, 2012.  Curtis Martin was in Canton to meet with HOF officials and tour the Hall. As such, I was filming his visit and as we were all in a circle talking, he mentioned his seven-month old daughter, Ava. 

It clicked. To this day I can't tell you why it happened, but hearing him say the name I knew right then that it was what your name would be. 

I couldn't wait to get home to tell your mom. It was settled. Ava Michelle it would be. 

As Paul Harvey would say "And now you know the rest of the story."