Nothing But Words

We’re Having a Boy!

I’m interrupting my self-imposed GRE-prep seclusion to break the blog silence: Maria had her second ultrasound earlier today, and it’s a boy! Kai and I were there too so we all found out together. Kai wanted a boy because little boys generally prefer other little boys, Maria wanted a boy because she likes Kai and he’s a boy, and I wanted a girl because I already have a boy, so I wanted to see what it would be like to have a girl. But it doesn’t really matter. The ultrasound indicated he’s healthy and coming along just fine.

The only problem is that Maria continues to be very uncomfortable and she can hardly eat - the baby is squishing her stomach. She’s currently two pounds lighter than when the pregnancy started. Her doctor has her on zofran, which is an anti-nausea medication. It doesn’t help her eat more, but it does help her keep down what she does eat, so it’s helping some. The doc has reassured us that the baby is an “efficient parasite” - even if Maria feels like she’s starving, she’s eating enough that the baby’s getting the nutrition he needs.

So now that we know it’s a boy, we’re talking about names. We’re planning to take the same approach we did with Kai: a Japanese first name and a Christian middle name. The first name with an early lead is “Gen” (with a hard “g”, like “get”). At first I wasn’t excited about it, but it’s a name that can be traced back in Maria’s family tree about 800 years to Japan’s Heian Period. The Toyoda’s come from the Minamoto line. “Gen” is the modern form of “Genji”, and the Wikipedia Minamoto page explains the connection: “The first emperor to start granting the name Minamoto was Emperor Saga. Afterwards, Emperor Seiwa, Emperor Murakami, Emperor Uda, and Emperor Daigo, among others, also gave their sons the name Minamoto. These specific hereditary lines coming from different emperors developed into specific clans and are often referred to as the Genji (源氏).” From the same time period there is also the novel, The Tale of Genji (The Shining Prince), a fictional account of the Emperor’s second son. After hearing all the history, I’m liking the name more.

I asked Maria, “why not Genji instead of Gen?” and she said naming him Genji would be like naming your kid Othello - it’s antiquated - Gen is the modern form.

I did a little digging online to learn more about the family history. I found a bio for Shihan Fumio Toyoda (founder of the Aikido Association International), and according to that, the Toyoda family comes from the Fujiwara clan. This History of Kamakura article indicates a connection between the Minimoto’s and the Fujiwara’s, so maybe that explains it. I’ll ask Maria to sort it out for me.

We haven’t contemplated a middle name yet…