Country star Granger Smith and his wife Amber Smith revealed they will honor their son, River Kelly Smith, who died in a drowning accident at the age of 3, with the name they plan to give their new baby boy due in August.
In a video the 41-year-old country singer and his wife shared on YouTube, the couple said they plan to name their child Maverick Beckham Smith and explained how it is a tribute to their late son. The clip was noted by E! News in a piece published Thursday.
“We went back and forth with, ‘Should we do middle name Kelly or middle name River or any of that?'” Amber explained. “I wanted Riv to be a part of it, of his first name. I wanted this baby to have his own identity.” (RELATED: Granger Smith’s 3-Year-Old Son’s Cause Of Death Confirmed)
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“And I didn’t want him to be so tied to River, but I did want him to have a little piece of his brother in his name,” she added. (RELATED: Granger Smith Talks About His ‘Failure As A Father’ After Son’s Tragic Death)
“He’ll forever be connected to his brother, his big brother Riv…so it’s important that his name is, too,” the “Don’t Tread On Me” hitmaker explained.
And the child’s middle name even has meaning as the country singer explained that Beckam means “home by the river.”
“‘Ham’ means home,” Granger said. “And ‘Beck’ means creek or stream or river.”
In March, the superstar couple shared the happy news they were expecting after suffering a tragedy.
“We’re pregnant,” the country singer captioned his post on Instagram, along with a clip of the family sharing the happy news and sonogram pictures of the baby boy.
“I don’t have many words for this video,” he added. “Life isn’t perfect. Sometimes it’s beat up and broken but it’s NEVER hopeless. God promises that.”
“Sweet Riv, because of the beautiful life you lived, we are forever changed and we will continue honoring your big, little legacy until we come home to you,” Amber wrote on her post on Instagram. “To God we give all the glory and we can’t wait to meet our new little boy August 2021.”