The poll results are in and we officially have a tie between Ira, Henry, and Griffin. Thank you for you input; I never imagined being so indecisive on my child's name. You can all hope for a girl on our next child (in many years) because that name is a slam dunk.
We called in the name this morning...
Ira Robert Shipley. I love the name and Jess does not. I let her know last night that we had to pick a name by the morning. She woke up while I was sneaking out to work this morning and said, "just name him Ira." I know what you are saying..."Ira! I can't believe they named him Ira. He is going to have to go by his middle name." Well, I hope this is not the case and let me explain why I like the name.
I love the name because every Ira I have ever heard of has been a strong and honorable man. Ira Ames is one of our ancestors that crossed the planes and was friends with both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Come to find out, Ira Ames is a relative on both of our sides (which may explain the baby's webbed toe). Ira Milton Anderson was Jess's great grandfather. He died at age 32 leaving his wife with 6 young children. His eldest son whom is also named Ira quit school and went to work to support his mother and brothers and sisters. Ira Hayes was one of the flag raisers on Iwo Jima (on the famous picture of the second flag). He was honorable in battle and honorable when he returned home (as he felt it was his duty to let the parents of one of the flag raisers that was misidentified know that it was really their son), although he ended up trying to drown his battle memories in alcohol. Ira Fulton is successful and donates a lot of money to BYU, so he sounds like a good guy also. These are all the Iras that I know about. The bottom line is that I believe Ira is a strong name that will provide a great legacy for him to live up to.
Hopefully you like the name or are like Jess and hope to like the name some day. I'm sure we will get some comments on this one, so let's hear them.