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Wayah the Cherokee word for "wolf" When I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1995, Wayah was my trail name.  When Melanie and I were picking out names for our baby, Wayah was one of the few names that we both liked.  Having used more than one name in my life, I had the opportunity to name my son not just after myself, but after one of my favorite parts of myself. We settled on the name in March (which happens to be when I started hiking the A.T.) and then he was born on October 1st, which is the anniversary of my completing the trail. In this part of the country, most of the older names of things are Cherokee, and many rivers, mountains, and landmarks still have those names, so if he ends up loving the wilderness as much as his dad, there will be plenty for this little wolf to sink his teeth into.

James My father's first name

Leo for Leo Tolstoy All through this pregnancy, Melanie was reading "War and Peace" and one night after we had spend months of not being totally happy with any of the names we had come across, Melanie looked at the cover of her book and said "How about 'Leo'?".  So Wayah was named after a really long hike, and Leo was named after a really long book.

Blue Wayah's pick Back when we were pouring over a list of possible names for the baby we asked Wayah which one he liked, and he chose "Blue" but we thought it would be better for a middle name.