Everything has been new lately, new house, new school, new doctors, new hairstylist (more scary than a new doctor) and I’ve found myself telling certain stories over and over. One of them being the names of my kids and, when people ask, how we chose each one. I love telling each story because it takes me back to a time when they weren’t all so big and grown and fighting over the laptop.
Ashlyn Taylor
I saw the name Ashlyn in an Irish folklore book in high school (yes, I was pregnant in high school). Ashlyn’s middle name Taylor was a name I had always loved so that was that. Being a single mom made the name-picking simple. I found her names and loved them and her story began.
Since I decided to do things the sort of-traditional way the second, third, forth and fifth time around I had a husband to cooperate with on the rest of the naming.
McKenna Karen
Mark brought up the name McKenna after I volunteered him to help at a picnic at my work. He ended up at the face painting table and one of his little customers was the cutest redhead named McKenna. We both loved the name and once we knew our triplets were going to be two girls and a boy we decided our first girl would be McKenna since it was the first name we agreed on. Karen is the first name of Mark’s late mom so we knew we wanted one of our girls named after her.
Parker Murphy
I honestly cannot remember where we first heard the name Parker, I think it might have scrolled past at the end of movie credits in the days when Mark and I could still watch a movie uninterrupted. Even though motherhood has taken my memory, I do know that as soon as we heard it we both loved it and the boy name discussion was over. Murphy is the maiden name of Mark’s late mom and we loved the idea of using it for Parker’s middle name.
Hadley Jane
Can I just say before I explain, that I LOVE typing her name?? I love saying it, reading it, writing it, every chance I get.
Hadley’s name was the hardest for us to decide on. I had read a book years ago (which I am now dying to find the name of) that had a girl named Hadley as one of the main characters. I fell in love with the name and saved it somewhere in my mind. Mark was not a big fan when I brought it up early in my pregnancy. He actually gave it a definite “no” so I gave up and we debated our Baby C’s name my whole pregnancy. Right before the triplets were born he brought up the name Hadley out of nowhere. He had admitted a new student to school named Hadley and said she was the sweetest girl and reminded him of what our girls might be like some day. So, I got my way and Hadley it was.
We actually decided on her name when they were wheeling me into my c-section. Jane was after my maternal grandmother Mary Jane. I’m so glad I named one of my girls after her, I just wish they could have met. The funny thing about Hadley’s name is, since we debated it for so long, I felt like I knew her the best when they were born. We would watch her in the ultrasounds, talk about how she moved and what kind of personality she might have, searching for the perfect name. We never knew what precious time that was.
Sawyer Mark
This was a tough one. We did not know what we were having so we debated the WHOLE pregnancy. If he was a girl he would not have had a name at birth, he probably still would not have a name. We just could not agree. I had all of these issues with our kids names being the same style, not beginning with the same letter, etc, etc and Mark had a bad student with the name of every single name I had left.
At some point I saw a picture of two brothers named Hudson and Sawyer and loved both names. Hudson did not go with our last name so Sawyer was my pick and Mark decided on Owen. Once Mark watched me go through days of labor trying to keep our little baby in as long as possible he decided it would be my pick :). I was still going back and forth while I was heading into my c-section on giving Mark, Owen or picking Sawyer. The nurse anesthetist actually helped me decide while they were placing my spinal when she told me they had delivered lots of Owens in the last week. His middle name is after his daddy.
And that is how we came about our names.
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We wanted biblical names for our children, so that narrowed things down quite a bit.
#1 – We picked Rachel, which means, Lamb of God, for her first name. Her middle name is Elisabeth (yes, spelled with an “s”) which we liked cause my name, Lisa, is in the middle. A boy would’ve been David, which means beloved, with a middle name of John, for my husband.
#2 – We went back and forth on this one right up until we brought her home from the hospital! It was between Sarah, which means princess, and Rebekah, which means “binding, like an oath.” In the end we went with Rebekah (never Becky – I really don’t like Becky). It turned out to be perfect for her because Rebekah has autism, which we never could’ve known at the time. Because of her autism I have felt that “binding” to her and the unspoken “oath” of a mother in very complex ways, sometimes good, sometimes not so good. Her middle name is Grace, just cause we liked it, but that has turned out to be perfect for her too – a reminder for me of God’s grace for everyone, especially those we might consider “less than.”
#3 – Our third child was completely unplanned. In fact we were using birth control faithfully at the time because we did NOT want another child since Rebekah was such a handful. Go figure. God had other plans. I struggled to come to terms with this pregnancy for a LONG time. I was 40 and Rebekah was just starting preschool and I thought I was going to get a LITTLE bit of my life back. Sarah would win this time for a girl, but I told my husband I could not use David for a boy as we would have for the other two. This life inside me did not feel “beloved” at the time. It was awful to feel that way, but I had to be honest. He said if it was a boy I could name him anything I wanted – he would just be thrilled not to be the only man in the house! Well, “it” was a boy. And the name I chose was Matthew, which means “gift of God.” I know it’s a common name, but the meaning was just too perfect. We didn’t ask for him, but there he was. And by the time he was born he was loved by BOTH his parents. He is 7 now and he is mommy’s boy, and I love him dearly. His middle name is John after my husband. And after we received the wonderful gift of Matthew we got fixed. I was 40 after all, and boy are boys ACTIVE! He tires me out!
Thanks for asking us to share – I know it was long, but I love talking/writing about my kids, and I don’t have a blog! 🙂
I love a baby-naming story and I LOVE when you type Hadley’s name, too.
(Truth: I have a total crush on the name Hadley Jane. It’s just perfect.)
If it hadn’t been so hard to pick our own kids’ names (and we have only one boy and one girl so HOW HARD SHOULD IT HAVE BEEN?!?) I would have had twenty children – just to name them.
This might be the only time I’ve been jealous of Michelle Duggar.
Thanks for sharing your stories. It made me smile.
Every time I say my kids names, they still make me smile. That’s how I know I chose well. Thanks for continuing to read my blog, Jessica!
My fiance and I have been debating baby names for about four years now. We’re not expecting, or expecting to expect in the near future. We had just about decided on Noah for a boy, and then it turned out Noah was the most popular boys name that year.
I really want Matilda for a girl, Mattie for short (it’s my brother’s baby name, I’m sure he would like it if I stopped calling him Mattie)
I do love the name Hadley. It’s quite high on my favourites list.
I love the name Matilda, so cute! Deciding on names is fun, as long as it doesn’t got on for to long :).
I think I have told you this before. We can never agree on anything, so a few years before we were even certain we wanted kids, I checked out a baby naming book from the library, and we both independently went through and wrote lists of boys and girls names we both liked, and then went through our lists and vetoed. And then I put the lists away.
When I was pregnant, before finding out we were having three girls, we had agreed on Caitlin and Julia (in that order) for girls, and Vincent for a boy. If the identicals were boys, we were going to name them Frank and John, after our fathers, because we had nothing else (I liked Owen but it didn’t go with our last name). The day we found out we were having girls, after we saw the identical girls and before the doctor pronounced Gabrielle a girl, I sat there saying, “Please be a boy, we don’t have another girl name!” We found out about the birth defect, and hubby wanted to give her the name Caitlin, because it was the first name we agreed on and she would have the toughest time if she survived. The other identical was Julia. We went back and forth through the pregnancy on Gabrielle – I wanted Sydney, he wanted Gabrielle – and when they were wheeling me into delivery (after laboring for 8 hours drug free), he said, “It’s going to be Gabrielle, right?” And I just said “Whatever!” (Though I had been leaning toward Gabrielle, because I figured people would call Sydney Syd, and Syd Newman sounded like an old Jewish man to me). So it’s Caitlin Elizabeth (the middle name for his grandmother), Julia Evelyn (middle for my grandmother) and Gabrielle Rose (middle for his great-grandmother). After we bought a house in Anchorage and got all of our stuff delivered, I randomly found our original lists when the girls were like 18 months old, and all three of those names were the original ones we’d agreed on.
I haven’t heard this story. I didn’t realize you decided when they were wheeling you into the delivery room, that’s just like what happened with us. Love that the names were all on your original list.
My poor kids……#2 and #3 will almost never find their names on those cute “personalized” children’s items (keychains, mugs, etc.).
#1 – Sarah Catherine – Sarah we both liked & Catherine is my mom’s name. When Sarah was 3, my mom passed away, so the middle name is even more special now.
#2 – Stanley Thomas – My husband’s grandpa (Stanley) and my grandpa (Thomas). It sounds weird at first, but the name TOTALLY suits him.
#3 – Bonnie Elizabeth – My late (favorite) aunt (Bonnie) and a name we agreed on to go with Bonnie.
I LOVE your names, love that they are classic but so original. Mine probably won’t ever have a keychain or pencil either.
I NEVER get tired of name discussions! We’ve only ever used family names – once we started, I felt like we couldn’t stop…. If Tolliver had been a girl, we probably would have used Celia’s middle name – Eleanor – again. (I wanted to call her Nell). Would you have considered using either of Hadley’s names again, or does that seem weird? Really enjoyed reading about the reasons behind your kids’ names 🙂
I love the stories of their names – thank you for sharing!
I loved reading this. your children have fantastic names, and I too really like Hadley Jane. I know what you mean about loving to type and say her name! all of my children have family names for their middle names and names I picked out for first names. I placed a huge emphasis on the meanings of their names. Kathryn means pure.
I am obsessed with names! Ok, that might be a little stretch, but still. I love the whole naming process. My two boys are Aldon Matthew, and Liam Allen. I picked Aldon’s first name, which was actually stolen from a distant cousin ;), and he shares my father in laws middle name. Liam was tricky… my husband and I could NOT agree. We knew they would share a middle name, but we were lost on a first. The only one we both liked was Liam, but we weren’t crazy about it. Now we can’t picture him with any other name, though! 🙂
I love the name Ashlyn. And a good friend just named her son Parker! With my oldest, Scarlet was just a name to follow us around in life. There are too many instances to name but I loved it and my husband loved it because of the Grateful Dead song, “Scarlet Begonias.” I lobbied for using two “t”s (Scarlett) but my husband won out on spelling. For my son, I confess we loved the character Desmond in LOST. And we love calling him Des. It’s short for destiny too, and the name is very handsome to me.
I’ve never watched LOST but as soon as we named Sawyer, everyone asked us if we named him after the character in the show. I guess the two of us have a bit of the cast in our homes :).
I love learning about how people pick the names for their children. We chose our name because it was unique and something we didn’t hear often, kind of like the names you chose.
It’s nice, too, now that they are in school, that there aren’t 5 more kids with the same name in the class.
Picking names is a tricky business. You were lucky with Ashlyn in that you didn’t have to agree with anyone. We debated so much with our first – our twins. I wanted their names to MEAN something after having tried for a year and a half for them. Their names mean “God’s Gift” and “Gift of God” or something like that. Their middle names are after their grandfathers. Our other three boys were just names we liked, and some got tossed out because we were simply sick of boy names after five boys. Thanks for sharing your story!
By my youngest we were tired of trying to find names too. It was a neverending conversation and my husband and I could not agree.
I loooooooove names and the stories behind why they were chosen. Parker, Owen and Sawyer made our short list of names each time but in the end we didn’t use any of them.
How funny, love that we have the same taste in names.
I love your names! Awesome! I too was pregnant in highschool and got the pleasure of naming my baby girl all by myself, so my oldest's name was definitely uniquely me! Happy SITS Saturday Sharefest!
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Great names! I always love to hear stories behind people's names. I was almost named "Havelah" [shudder]. Have you ever heard of nameberry.com? I could lose hours on that site (I love their lists) and I don't even have kids to name! Ha!Happy SITS Saturday Sharefest!