A BOY NAMED IVEY

One of the top questions I get is why we named our son Ivey. In reality, that’s not his name! The name we gave him at birth is Charles Edward Harris IV. So why do we call him Ivey?

When my husband and I were in college at the University of Florida, their was a football player named Martez Ivey. At that point, we had long since talked about getting married and having kids. We knew if we had a son that he would be a fourth and we were always on the lookout for nicknames.

Charles, my husband, goes by Tre with his family. Tre (or Trey) is a popular nickname for the third. There are also lots of good nicknames for the fifth - Quinn, Quincy, Quinton, etc. But nicknames for the fourth? The options aren’t great.

Enter ‘Ivey.’ We loved the play on the Roman numerals - IV. We also loved that it was an uncommon name for a boy, but still a derivation of a common, easy to pronounce name. Once the idea entered our heads, it just stuck!

Fast forward a decade to when we found out we were expecting a baby boy. We briefly considered other options but Ivey just felt right. We hardly ever call Ivey by his given name, but if he chooses to go by Charles or some derivation of Charles when he’s older, we’ll respect his wishes. Until then, we’ll continue giving our spiel to everyone who asks!