What is a Postilius?

Like so many couples, when Amanda became pregnant we decided to start a blog.  It is now expected of the expecting; I believe it’s the task on the to do list right after registering at Target.  Common concerns people have about starting blogs are issues of privacy, finding time to commit to writing posts, or not knowing what to write.  My only reason for dragging my feet was that I am terrible at thinking of titles, and I had no idea what to name our blog.  A title is important.  A good one should, in a few words, summarize what the blog is about, set a tone, and at the same time be catchy.  I have a hard time being creative under pressure so we abandoned originality and published at garryandamanda.blogspot.com.  We always planned to change this name, but felt more of a need to do so after the discovery of garyandamanda.blogspot.com.  We thought it best to not create confusion between this nice Mormon couple and ourselves.  We are sure that garyandamanda agree.

The word Postilius came from past discussions we have had with friends about how to handle surnames when a couple marries.  Does one person take the other person’s last name and abandon his or her own?   Do you hyphenate?  Do you create a new name?  Amanda and I never questioned keeping our respective last names (and gave Ezra both our names), but would joke about combining our names, Milius and Posto, into a new last name.  We would laugh at how ridiculous these new names sounded.  Miliosto is impossible to pronounce without using an exaggerated Italian accent and sounds like a name a faux-Italian fast food restaurant might give their new baked pasta creation.  I always thought Postilius sounded like an irritating, but not lethal, medical condition, maybe the clinical term for a type of skin rash. 

Postilius does not explain what our blog is about.  It is difficult to spell.  It is not catchy.  I admit it is a terrible blog name, but we have grown attached to it.  Postilius has become our family’s collective identity since we all have different last names - including the one we made up for our dog, Piper Brandon*.   The once ridiculous sounding Postilius now escapes our lips effortlessly and has become our online home, persona, and brand (it is very 21st century to brand yourself!).  Regardless, welcome to The Postilius “Household.”

*Our cats, Sister Stella Marie and Sister Mary [Mother of God Full of] Grace chose to relinquish their last names when they devoted their life to the convent.  Nuns are married to God, and God doesn’t have a last name.  He is famous, like Cher.