Since I was little, I always wanted to have a boy and I always wanted to name him Eli Mathew. I was lucky enough to fall in love with a boy who's middle name is also Mathew, so it was even more sentimental for me. When I got pregnant we didn't even consider girl names, we went through a few boy names but we were always pretty sure about Eli Mathew. As soon as we found out for sure he was a boy, we told everyone who he was.
Although, towards the end BF kept complaining that Eli was too short and that he would like it better if his full name was Elijah Mathew, so I agreed and we went with that.
If you're wondering why I loved the name, it's because I've always loved to write, I wrote my first short story when I was in first grade and just never stopped. I always liked the name Eli Mathew and I used it here and there, but when I was a young teenager (I think 14-15) I started a story that I worked on day and night for hours at a time and it ended up being over 200 printed pages long (10 font, single spaced etc). The main character's name in the story was Eli Mathew, and I fell in love with him (or, the idea of him haha). I drew pictures of him, and pretty much made him real in my imagination.
I got really involved with the idea of who he was and how I felt about him, it was a strange writer-character relationship lol!!
So I knew my son's name would be Eli Mathew, cause I knew I wouldn't like any name better than that and it held some real meaning for me (especially since his dad's middle name is also Mathew). I know, corny story, but I like to think about it because its fun and different from just picking a random name that sounds nice (which I will be doing for my next child, hopefully a girl LOL).
EDIT: I also liked the idea of people being able to buy appropriate gifts for him, since they knew he was a boy. No mysteries, meaning better and more appropriate gifts.
