Since we have now seen a scrotum on the ultrasound and therefore know we must buckle down and pick a name appropriate for one of the male sex (yes, sadly, we’ve admitted that “Catherine,” however lovely, is not appropriate at this juncture), we decided to consult the baby’s family tree in search of famous rogues, notorious personages, and baby name ideas.  What we mainly found was the fascinating history of ordinary people- and a few names we WON’T be using.  A sample follows, for your amusement and inspiration.  I promise you, I am not making ANY of these up- each and every one is the given name of one of this child’s male ancestors.  There were also a great many solid Johns, Roberts, Williams, and Thomases to be found- plus at least one Dick and one Harry.  So there you have it.

Otto
Elijah
Ottilie
Erwin
Adolphus
Ebenezer
Orion
Phineas
Asa
Moses
Hiram
Adelbert
Eliakim
Orin
Azor
Sylvanus
Ransom
Jebediah
Selar
Theophil
Levi
Erastus
Orrin
Joe Bob
Sven
Parmenas
Jeptha
Enos
Marmaduke
Appleton (surname: Beckwith.  I mention this because A) This was one of my favorite names on the family tree and B) it appears more than once.  Which means someone spent his entire life introducing himself as “Appleton Beckwith” and still named someone after himself.)
Albertus
Adaeu
Phineas
Hercules

PS: Thanks are owed to the tireless geneaology research done by my dad, and to the bottomless archive of my Grandma’s memory.  A great deal of what we know about our family history is due to things she remembered, and Dad tracked down in the historical record.