The Name

I like names that have history or stories behind them. It was important for us when naming both of our boys to give them names that mean something to us.

So here's where we got Porter General:

When we started thinking about boy names for Porter, we weren't necessarily set on P names. In fact, we seriously considered the name we had always had picked out for a boy and it isn't a P name. Our main criteria were that it was not popular (since our last name is Miller we didn't want our son to be one of several John Miller's at his school or job or wherever) and that it was easy to spell upon hearing it (something I obviously struggle with every time people try to spell my name).

So with that in mind, we started perusing baby name books and websites and Jared found the name Porter. We looked up the meaning and thought it fit well with Paxton so we kept it on our short list. It eventually moved to the top and we decided to make it official around Christmas.

I was set on giving this baby a middle name after Jared and we both liked Porter Jared better than Porter Allen (Jared's middle name) so we were planning on going with that, but Jared had been wanting to somehow name one of our boys after his grandpa. The problem was that his grandpa's name was G.W. which doesn't really work as a middle name so Jared had kind of given up on it. I knew the idea was still in his head so I told him to ask Granny Pat and make sure G.W. didn't stand for anything. When he asked her, she was cracking up as she told him his name really was G.W. and on his birth certificate it said G (only) W (only) and his friends used to make fun of him and call him Gonly Wonly. She also told us that he was named G.W. after his grandpa whose name was General William. We were excited because if we used General, we could be naming Porter after Jared's grandpa, and honoring Granny Pat because we would always remember her telling us that story and laughing about it. I wanted Jared to have the final say though, since Porter was supposed to be named after him. It didn't take him long to decide that it would be General. It is extra-special because the grandkids all called Jared's grandpa BG, and we sometimes call Porter by his initials, PG which sounds really similar.

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