Parker McCollum and wife Hallie Ray Light have welcomed their first child together.
“Major Yancey Tyler McCollum,” the couple captioned a joint Instagram post on Friday, August 9. Photos showed the pair holding their baby boy in the hospital while wearing coordinating light blue outfits. Later photos showed the pair introducing their chocolate Labrador retriever to their new family member.
Major was born on Thursday, August 8, and the family has been adjusting well since bringing him home. “Mom life = best life!” Light captioned an Instagram Story selfie with her little boy on Tuesday, August 13.
Just a couple weeks before Light gave birth, the couple revealed they’ve chosen a unique — and uniquely fitting — name for their upcoming arrival.
Speaking to the Spencer Graves Show on July 23, McCollum shared that his baby boy will be called Major Yancey McCollum.
The country singer, who is a Texas native, explained that he got the idea for his son’s first name from watching vintage college football championship game footage featuring a Lone Star sports legend.
“It’s dope,” he noted. “I was watching Rose Bowl highlights and I saw [former Texas Longhorns QB] Major Applewhite, and I was like ‘Damn. Major McColllum would be sick.’”
@mrspencergraves Parker McCollum Shares His Baby Name #parkermccollum #spencergravesshow #fyp #foryoupage
As for the babe’s middle name? McCollum said that “Yancey” was the brainchild of his wife. “That’s what she wants. She likes Major Yancey,” he said.
McCollum and Light announced they were expecting their first child in February. In an Instagram post at the time, Light hinted at the baby’s name by mentioning his first initial.
“God’s little blessing,” she wrote, captioning a shot of herself and McCollum in a half-silhouette pose, with an ocean backdrop. “We love you so much already, Baby M!”
McCollum himself followed suit, tweeting, “I’m gone be a daddy! Baby M coming later this year! Such a huge blessing from God!”
The couple did not reveal an exact due date, save for McCollum’s reference to “later in the year.”
McCollum and Light married in March 2022. “I couldn’t wait to ask her to marry me,” McCollum told People in August 2021 after they got engaged the previous month.
“There was no backup plan and no hesitation. I didn’t overthink one thing,” he added. “I was like, ‘It can’t get any better than her.’ There was no doubt in my mind that I was making the right decision. She saved my life in a way. I don’t think I was headed down the right road.”
“We actually broke up at the end of [2020] for some goofy reason. I don’t even remember what the reason was,” he added. “We were still broken up and we were trying to work things out. But I walked off stage that night and I was like, ‘I don’t ever want to do anything like this again without her here.’”
He’s continued to rave about their partnership since tying the knot. “[With] Hallie Ray, my wife, there is no comedown anymore with her,” McCollum said during a January 2023 interview on Today’s Country Radio With Kelleigh Bannen. “I think that’s what is missing in that early time, is it’s just human nature, you want that connection and whatever.”
