Strauss in the House

Baby is close. Not here yet, but it's very close. There is a bit of juicy news concerning his name. And mine. And soon, Becky's.

We are taking my Grampa's last name, Strauss. In fact, as I type this I am legally, Jesse Benjamin Schmal Strauss. Becky is going to catch up after she finishes the craziness of getting her nursing license, at which point she will be Rebecca Colleen McCarthy Strauss. Little Straussling on the way will be _________ McCarthy Strauss.

I'm pretty excited about this for several reasons. When we got married and Becky kept her name, it was all good. However, once this little Straussling emerged on the horizon, we were faced with the last name problem. I was not into hyphenating our kid's name, not one bit. We both felt kind of weird about one of us taking the other's last name. Starting our family together with a new, yet personally significant name, seems like an equitable solution.

My Grampa, Ernest Strauss, was a stupendous individual. He was absolutely likable, faithful, intelligent, wrly humorous, easy-going, and the patriarch of our clan. Becky and I wear his and my Nana's wedding rings (and if you knew my Nana and Grampa, you knew their marriage as one worth emulating). Also, Grampa had two daughters: my mom, and my Aunt Karin, so 'Strauss' had been retired as a last name in our family. I hope bringing it back is an honor to him.

And so my driver's license, followed by the rest of my wallet, will identify me as Jesse Strauss. My dad has been incredibly cool in understanding the reasons for the change. I'm counting on my little brother Mike to eventually make some Schmal babies. And, you can probably cross out 'Levi' and 'Johann' from any baby name guessing.