Ace in the Hole

The story behind the name!

How many times in school did you have to write a paper about "how you were named"? I can think of at least 4 different times I did. There's not a true "story" behind my unique name but it was nice having something to write besides, "my parents just liked it". So here is the story behind the origin of Ace's name. I'm pretty much in love with how it goes...

When I was teaching I regularly referred to my kindergarten boys as Ace. "Awesome job, Ace!" "Wow, look at that handwriting, Ace!" I used this so often in fact, they would ask why I called all the boys the same name. My explanation: Ace is like a term of endearment. No different than saying "sweetheart" or "champ". When I think of the word ace, I think "number one" "the best".

Webster agrees: 

ace [eys]

noun. a very skilled person; expert; adept: an ace at tap dancing.

or, hopefully in our case, throwing or tackling. 

That continued when Turbo and I first started dating. I would call him "Ace" like a pet name. "Good morning, Ace" etc.

For at least a year Travis and I have referred to our future child as Ace. As a silly pet name to begin with, we used this more as joke than anything.  A word that inferred that our lives would surely change. "When Ace comes you know you can't drink a bottle of wine every night." "When Ace is here we've got to stop going out of town so much!" "On Friday nights we'll go to Ace's football games." "Can't wait for there to be an Ace in the hole?!" (Which coincidentally also happens to be the name of George Strait's band...)

Well, this nick-name definitely stuck among our family and friends. We don't say "it" or "baby" we say "Ace".

I get regular messages asking how Ace and I am doing. If I have a request for Turbo, approaching it by saying "Ace wants BBQ" has nearly a 100% chance of working.

He will without a doubt, be Coach Kliff Kingsbury for Halloween in 2017, Brynn!
Apparently all of my texting takes place around 11 am and my phone is always about to die.

My favorite are the hand written ones! Love seeing his name in print, especially lipstick-on-the-shower-wall-print, courtesy of the doting baby-daddy! Oh my heart! 

I just assumed this would remain a nickname and originally I was thinking we'd go with Travis Layne (Trav's name) and just call him Ace, and that's what we had told people, but Turbo wasn't the biggest fan of going the Junior route, I wasn't a huge fan of "wasting" Layne - a name I love for a girl- as a middle name, and the more we thought about it (for all of like, 3 minutes) the more we decided that if we're going to call someone something his whole life, we may as well just name him that! As a former teacher, I know that's appreciated!

We had every single intention on keeping the names a secret until they were born. I am semi-obsessed with baby names but after my sister-in-laws started having babies I vowed to not ever, ever, let the names I truly loved slip. So these names have been kept under tight wraps for a very long time. 
(Except from my mom, she of course knew! We've shared a list of baby names together for ages.)

Like I mentioned, I imagined the name would be a big surprise on the day (s)he was worn but we use it so frequently we couldn't keep it sealed. 

So, long story short...should baby U be a boy his name will be:

Ace Edward Urbanovsky. LOVE. 

Edward, who is possibly the sweetest man I've ever met, is Travis' grandfather. He's also extremely musically inclined and we're desperately hoping that will be passed on to our children!

I mean, come on! Just say "Ace Urbanovsky with the tackle" in your best high school football announcer, loud speaker voice and TELL me that's not the name of a total badass!

Ace shouldn't have any problem learning his vowels either. Just missing I and O (and sometimes Y)

And should baby U be a girl?

Her name will be...

A surprise! But her sweet monogram will be aUa. 

Both inspired by family names. I can guarantee you, you don't know any little girls with the name. And don't ask, I won't tell! 

...though it's very likely we will call her Acie, because honestly we just can't undo Ace! It's stuck!

and truthfully, if the "A" changes from the original name we have planned to "Acie", I wouldn't at all be surprised... 

Choosing the names was the easiest decision we have made! It helped that we've been mentioning baby names for ages but in about 3 minutes we had it settled! I am so thankful for our like-mindedness on what can easily become a major stress factor before a baby comes!