Naming. A Favorite Thing.

Recently, a blogger Mommy likes to read had a little post about naming babies. And this is one of Mommies favorite topics. Favorite. In college, she named the couch, a sleeping bag, and a several vehicles with her best friends. The naming obsession is a sickness that has been constructively channeled into naming children. Mommy's eagerness can overwhelm Daddy at times in this department so maybe the sickness is alive and well? Without further ado, we share the name stories.

Miriam Joy

When you're pregnant for the first time and you open up the Billion Baby Names book it's a little bit MUCH. Where to begin? Luckily, Sarah's aunt emailed a list of her favorite Biblical names. She prefaced the email with something like, "Here are the names I always liked but never got to use. I won't be offended at all if you don't use them." Thus narrowing down the list from a Billion to about ten. Whew. Miriam was plucked from the email with little debate; we both liked it. That middle name, however, went round and round. Mommy wanted Violet. Daddy was fine with that. Everyone else frowned when they heard it. After chewing on it awhile, we decided on Joy. Daddy suggested it because he always liked the saying, "Live a life of JOY. Jesus, Others, and Yourself." The crowds were delighted. It's pretty and relatively unique, Biblical and perfect for our little Squeaker. And if she were a boy: Jacob Paul...which is now ridiculously popular and we're probably not touching it with a ten foot pole.

Vivian Therese

Mommy really, really wanted Violet. Daddy wasn't very comfortable with it. And the crowds were frowning again. In the middle of the name debate, we had a dinner party and a priest friend was there. We asked what he would name a baby if he were ever given the chance. "Therese," he answer without hesitation. "As in the Little Flower." So Therese entered the running. Vivian became the "compromise" name. Both Mommy and Daddy liked it, wasn't very common, sounded nice with Therese, and the meaning: Full of Life was lovely. Full of Life is exactly what she is, too! Her name would have been Elijah Paul if she'd been a he...but now that one is climbing the ranks and we know TWO baby Eli's! So probably not picking that one up again either.

Felicity Grace

Mommy wanted to get to work naming baby #3 the moment we found out we were expecting. Daddy, however, begged that it wait until around 20 weeks. Why the rush!?!?!? So Mommy made a list of her favorite names, a column for girls and a column for boys, and left it on the kitchen table in case Daddy ever wanted to pick it up and discuss them. Pretty quickly, we came to an agreement about a boy's name. With two girls already, we were probably having a boy this time anyways. Right? So Simon Paul. (And you'll notice the boy's middle name is always Paul. Tim's nephew, Tim's dad, and Tim all share the middle name Paul.) The girl name waited. Mommy wanted Cecilia. BAD. Daddy kept getting hung up on the song. (Can anyone convince him that peers in this generation will not know the song!?!?!?! Please!) Going into the hospital, there was still no girl name. While Mommy labored, Daddy whiled away the hours contemplating names. He was almost sold on Cecilia when the nurse came in. They talked and then she said, "Did you know there's a song called Cecilia?" Straw, meet camel. Cecilia was off the list (for this child, at least). But we could happily agree on Felicity Grace. And a couple hours later, Felicity, not Simon!, was born.