Tuesday, February 5, 2013

What's In A Name?

Today I am linking up with Amanda at My Very Own Modern Family for her link party:
button

Amanda loves baby names and so do I. I may maintain a list of baby names I love, that I am constantly editing, even though I'm done having babies. What? Not everyone I know is done having babies and maybe someone will let me name theirs. It could happen. So, when I saw around blogland that Amanda was asking people to talk about their children's names and why they gave those names, I knew I had to join in and stalk all of the other posts!
I have, as most of you know, two girls. So, without further ado!

Eva Anna-Mercedes - I picked out Eva's first name when I was newly pregnant. I loved it. It felt so glamorous to me (that sounds super dumb right now but it's true) and I was set on having something a little different but not random or too foreign. Eric was uninterested in the name to begin with and we initially settled on Kendall. We were set on that until... well, I changed my mind is what it boils down to. It's a great name but I heard someone use it for a boy and then someone else said something about "Ken Doll" and that was the end for me. I wanted to formally name her Evangeline and call her Eva, but Eric told me that sounded like "a scary witch name" and there were hand gestures involved and I lost that battle. He liked Lucy and I liked Eva and we went into the delivery room without being positive. But, when she came, I asked him if she was Eva or Lucy and he declared her Eva. So, Eva it was. Anna-Mercedes is a big name with a lot of meaning. My grandmothers were two amazing women who I really wanted to honor and I was terrified I wouldn't have a second girl and then someone would be left out. My paternal grandmother was Anna Elizabeth and my maternal grandmother was Irene Ann, so I used Anna as a way to mash-up honor the both of them. Eric's grandmother, Nana, is Mexican and might be my favorite person alive today. She's adorable and sweet and her name is Mercedes. I have loved that name for pretty much forever as well, but Eric did not think we should name our first born after a luxury car brand, so I stuck that together with Anna to get a long ass middle name packed with a lot of meaning. (Both of my grandmothers are dead, but Nana is going strong. She cried when she found out Eva's name and she carried a picture around to all of her little friends to show them her "Tocaita" (spelling is probably butchered) which means, roughly, "person of the same name". She was so incredibly honored and I'm so glad we did it.

Audrey Elizabeth - Man. After all of that you would think Audrey's name would have more meaning than it does. But, as i said, I wanted to honor EVERYONE with that first shot in case the second child was a boy. So, when Aud came along, we were kind of short on inspiration. I liked Irene very much, but my sister had used that as her youngest daughters middle name and I didn't want to reuse the name. I know. So dumb. Audrey had been a name I loved when I was a little girl and carried around a baby doll and a baby name book. It was probably the first name that I actually loved. I have no idea why I didn't even consider it for my first child. It never even came to mind. But, when we were expecting Audrey it was a forerunner early on. We went into the delivery room unsure once again, but knowing that her name would be either Audrey or Vivienne. When she came, Eric said she looked like an Audrey and it stuck. Elizabeth is my confirmation name and also my Granny's middle name. I lost her while I was pregnant with Eva and I guess it felt right to give her a double nod. That, or I just liked the name.We had considered (or I had) trying to honor our mothers as both of them have Marie or Maria in their names, but I'm not a big enough fan of that one.

Well there you have it. Short books on why I named my girls what I named them. With both I had a short period right after they were born where I panicked that I had ruined their lives with their names, but, no. They're exactly right for those two.



No comments:

Post a Comment