Boy oh Boy! Adventure # 4

Of course as soon as we announced we were having a baby boy the next logical question is...What are you going to name him?

This is both the easiest and most difficult question.

We've actually had a boy's name picked out since even before Sophie was a glimmer in our eye. I'm sure I even have the piece of paper we wrote down all possible name choices.

Our son will be called John Abert. (A-B-E-R-T). No L. Not aLbert. Abert.

John E. Bishop 1919 - 1991

John Edward Bishop is Phillip's grandfather's name on his mom's side. He was very close to his grandparents and if you have ever met Phillip or sat in one of his classes you know he references his granddad as if you had met the man 100 times.

(Thank goodness Phillip read this and added in the historical details...I would have botched the following for sure.)

John James Abert 1788 - 1863
(We have this original portrait
hanging on our wall.)

Abert goes back to Colonel Jean James Abert, the French aristocrat in charge of the Comte de Rochambeau's topographical, or map-making, operations.  The Comte led the French forces that, aided by Washington's army, defeated the British at Yorktown.  His son, Colonel John James Abert (A Colonel in the American Army) was Phillip's five-greats grandfather. A male in Phillip's family has carried the Abert every generation since. The later Abert was also a mapmaker, founding the Army Topographical Corps and surveying the Oregon cession.  The Abert's Squirrel, FYI, is also named for the second Colonel Abert. The last generation to have the name was Sophia Bache Abert, Phillip's three-greats grandmother, after whom Sophia is named. As an aside, you can link Phillip's family history back to Ben Franklin via Sophia Bache Abert. See page 4 of the above linked document.

The tricky part comes to the second middle name. Yes, second middle name. There are many family names we really like and so the curse of our children is that they all have two middle names. This way we could incorporate the names we really like without having 19 kids.

Namps and I (2/25/1922 - 9/28/2004)

My maternal grandfather, Namps, as we affectionately called him, was Robert Cann Kelly. (If anybody can, Robert Cann!) I would like to use Cann as the middle name because of it's originality. Phillip would like to use Kelly because you traditionally use a grandfather's last name. A wild and crazy idea would be to use both giving us "John Abert Cann Kelly Brown" but that's just a lot to fill out on any sort of paperwork!