Whenever people would ask why we chose such a name for Mateo, we sometimes find ourselves at a loss on how to answer. So how did we really choose Mateo's name? My best answer would be a baby names book.
At first, people would ask whether we plan to give him Ramil's name. There are a lot of people named after their father. Names like Alberto Adolfo Jr, George Lindemann Jr, Fernando Poe Jr, and a lot of other names with Jr at the end. Though it's a great idea to name a first-born son after the father, Ramil isn't really keen on the idea.
Some parents like to combine their names to come up with a name for the baby. Since we couldn't think of any name that can be formed from Ramil and Andrea, we chose to buy a baby names book. We didn't really have any criteria for the name we would choose. As long as it sounds nice to us and as long as the meaning of the name isn't something negative.
I chose Mateo because it doesn't sound as American as Matthew but they share the same meaning – gift from God, which is exactly what Mateo is. I delegated the second name to Ramil and he chose Alexander to signify the great things that we want for him. While we do believe it is important to go through one's life with a good-sounding name, a lot of people have gone through theirs with a not-so-good one and still, they turned out to be healthy individuals. We hope Mateo would grow up liking what people call him.
