It's All In A Name

One of the great privileges of parenthood is choosing a name for your child. And, it's a much harder job than I thought it would be before I had children. Like most women, I had a couple perfect names picked out, long before I was even married. However, all my favorites were vetoed by Brian and we had to start from scratch once I got pregnant for the first time. Since we have never wanted to find out the gender of our children before birth, we have had to come up with both a boy and a girl name for each pregnancy. Sometimes these names came easily, while others took months and months of vetoing and eliminations. We have never reused a name though. Each time I have gotten pregnant we have come up with new boy and girl names.

It's funny how everyone has differing opinions and criteria when choosing a name for their child. Some want very traditional names, while others lean toward very untraditional names. Some use family names, some do not. Some might insist on naming each child with the same starting letter, like say, 'M' :o). (Such is the case with my sister and her four darling 'M' girls, which causes me slight grief when I am tending them and get all sorts of tongue-tied when trying to get the attention of just one). Some pass a name along from generation to generation, while others (like myself) feel the need to break from that tradition - otherwise our first born son would have been named Michael (Brian's first given name is Michael, in case you didn't know).

For me, one of my biggest criteria in naming our children, has been that each child would have a very gender-specific name. I didn't want to use names that could be given to either a boy or a girl (not that there's anything wrong with that). Each of our children's first given name is one that Brian and I both agreed upon and has no specific meaning or family origin. Their middle names, on the other hand, do have family ties.

Ashlyn Belle - I had heard the name 'Ashlyn' a time or two and really liked it. 'Belle' comes from my maternal grandma, Juanita Belle.

Trent James - At one point while I was pregnant with Trent we were at a Bees game and I heard the name 'Trent'. I mentioned the possibility to Brian and he didn't veto it, so it stuck. 'James' is the male version of Jamie. It's common for a first born son to take on the name of his father, but I figured he was already getting the Smiley name, so why not name him after me instead? I love that he is connected to me in this way.

Luke Brian - I honestly thought I was having a girl with this one and we had a perfect name picked out: Annie Jean (Jean after Brian's paternal grandma, Wanda Jean). We had gone through dozens and dozens, maybe even a hundred, boy names and couldn't agree on a one. But, it was okay because we really thought we were having a girl. It was on the Sunday before his birth that we were talking at my parents home and admitted that we didn't have a boys name picked out. My sister Emily suggested 'Luke' and we both loved it. After his birth four days later, we decided his middle name should come from his Dad, so 'Brian' was written on the birth certificate.

Baby #4 - While I will not divulge the gender of our next child, I am going to tell you what names we have picked out. Back when we got our ultrasound, I mentioned that we almost asked to know the gender of our child because of a Christmas gift I was working on. That gift was the quilt that Mindy and I gave to my parents, featuring the initials of each family member - see why I wanted to know? I really wanted our last child to be on that quilt. Brian's solution to not finding out was to choose names that would have the same initials. We had had a hard time coming to an agreement on the names, but did finally figure it out: Cailin Ruth for a girl, and Chase Robert for a boy. It didn't matter in the end anyway, since we were accidentally told the gender, but those names still stuck. 'Ruth' comes from my mom, Marilyn Ruth, and 'Robert' comes from my Dad. Two people that I admire and respect most. This child is lucky to be named after such an amazing person...but which one is it?

hehehe.

I know, but I'm still not telling.

You'll find out soon enough.