Dear Carver,

I’m not sure if you’ll like your name or not, but I wanted to let you know how we came up with Carver. I think it’s very unique and I haven’t seen anyone named Carver. You see, when I found out I was pregnant with you, I called you my little peanut. Lincoln was my jellybean, so you became my peanut. Everybody started calling you peanut because we haven’t thought of a name for you, yet.

Your dad and I were thinking and thinking what would be a cool name. Since Lincoln is a name of a great President, I thought we should name you after a great scientist. Newton (dad didn’t like, because it will be short for Newt), Darwin (dad wasn’t a fan, either). None of the science greats really spoke to us and got us excited, like when we named Lincoln.

At one point, I wanted to name you Abraham. I thought it was clever. Dad said no. I thought, what about Jayson (get it?! Jay-son) Dad thought it was too cheesy and weird. So he decided to go back to the Presidents theme. Another great President. Maybe a Democrat this time. We just couldn’t decide. At one point, we were going to name you Churchill, the man who saved Europe. But, for some people, it’s kind of difficult to pronounce. But Churchill was definitely a close second.

So we were in the car and your dad yells out Carver! “George Washington’s middle name was Carver, I think. Karen, look up George Washington’s middle name.” I did. George Washington didn’t have a middle name. Every where I looked, it was just George Washington. BUT, there was a George Washington Carver and he has a pretty amazing story. Born into slavery and became a freed man, he pursued education with passion and curiosity, and became an inventor and botanist. And you know what the most amazing thing was? He basically created the peanut industry in the US. He was THE peanut specialist and also testified in Congress about the Peanut industry in the US, during a time it was uncommon for an African American man to testify. He was mocked by Southern congressional members, but you know what? Committee members kept on extending his time for his testimonial.

So there you have it, Carver. It’s like fate. That is how we came up with your name. It spoke to us. And I hope you are just as passionate and curious as Carver was about learning no matter what obstacles come your way. We love you so much and we can’t wait to meet you.