I’ve been tagged by Melinda for a meme, and I’m supposed to tell why we named our children the names that we did. Unlike people who have all these lovely family names dating back to the crossing of the mayflower, we don’t do that.
Cole Spencer Erickson was supposed to be a girl. Seriously–ultrasound and everything. He would have been named Megan. But we did have a back-up boy name, which we came to after some serious controversy. Ryan came up with the idea to name him Cole, after my maiden name, which is Coleman. He would be our little “Cole man.” But at the time I was working at Coverstar (yes, I’ve had weird jobs, what of it?) and there was this rep in California who was a bad bad man, who cheated, lied and stole and was the nemisis of the company. Yep, his name was Cole. I had such a sour taste in my mouth from that Cole that I couldn’t see what a great name it would be. But since I was quitting when the baby was born, I got over it. I chose the middle name, Spencer, after the prophet Spencer W. Kimball.
Megan Rene’ was next, and I don’t know how we came up with Megan originally, except that I made a long long list of names that I kind of liked, and Ryan crossed them all off except one (he’s real helpful that way). We came up with Rene’ and just liked the combination. So, no, she’s not named after anyone in particular.
Natalie Robin. It was either Natalie or Karen, although I think we were going to spell Karen some different way. I think Ryan liked Karen because she was the girl at Hogi Yogi who served us. Seriously. This is how we pick our names! Robin seemed like a good middle name, and was the name of one of my fun roommates and friends. Oh, and we were kind of building on the one syllable (Cole), two syllable (Megan) and then three syllable thing (Natalie).
Jennifer Anne. I think I tried to slide Darcy in here, but Ryan quickly shot that one down. He doesn’t really suggest names, only knocks down almost ALL my suggestions. I liked Jenna, but not particularly Jennifer. There were so many Jenny’s growing up, but I thought maybe the Jennifer craze had passed and she wouldn’t be one of four Jennifers in her class. We didn’t have a middle name, and when Grandma E came to see her in the hospital, and we didn’t have a middle name yet, she suggested Anne, and we said, OK.
John Steven. I wanted something stong. Maybe with an X in it. Dax, Max, Alex, Xander. We came up with Jonn. Not Jonathan (Ryan didn’t like that). Everyone in Junior High had a crush on John Steele, and so of course that name was a good one. Steven is the name of one of my cousins who was serving a mission at the time. It doesn’t fit in with the syllable thing, but we thought we’d just stick with one syllable names for the boys.
More information than you wanted, I know! So, I tag Lisa, Michelle, and Amber. And if you don’t have a blog but would like to tell how you chose the names you did, leave it in the comments.
Great names, and great reasons!
Ok Paige, I will take you up on telling how I named my children since I just had one and names are on the brain.
Nye Christopher: It is my husband’s dad’s middle name. When dating Chris, he informed me his first son would be named Nye and with a last name like Johnson, I thought why not. Nye is actually short for Nydegger, which is Swiss family on the Johnson side. Christopher is ofcourse after my husband.
Mary Kay: Mary is my Mom’s name and Chris’ grandmother’s name. Mary was born on my Dad’s birthday and his name is Kay. In Lehi Utah, where there are a ton of Swedes, Kay is not a weird name for man but anywhere else, it is. My dad informed all of his children that he would NOT allow a grandson named after him. So, I did him the honor of naming a granddaughter after him and he was very flattered.
Oscar: My great grandfather on my Dad’s side. Again, with a last name like Johnson, we had to do something original and I wanted to use a family name. Yes, I have heard all of the Oscar the Grouch jokes and I even dressed him like Oscar the Grouch for Halloween one year.
Britta: The spelling is purposely with two “t”s to make it Scandinavian instead of German–even though I have both nations running richly through me. Anyway, when I found out I was having a girl, it was a huge shock because I was POSITIVE it was a boy. I called my mom to tell her I was having a girl and had not thought of ONE name. She is a temple worker in the Denver temple and the name Britta Johnson was a common name she heard a lot at the time (all from Scandinavian countries in the 1800’s) and she threw it out there as a suggestion. It seemed to just stay with us and every time we talked about other names, they never seemed right. And then, when she was born with a head full of blond hair, we knew she was a Britta. She has no middle name. There you have it.
I figured I’d share mine as well.
Brianne Gaynelle: Brianne was a name I had loved as a teenager. I loved the meaning as well- strong. Gaynelle was my mother’s name, who died when I was a teenager.
Spencer Oran: Spencer for Spencer W. Kimball, a prophet. And Oran for his maternal great grandfather.
Connor Edward: This one was kind of a fluke. A week before he was born, we had NO boy names picked. We started going through movies and tv shows and things. We wanted Edward for the middle name. (his dad, grandfather, and great grandfather’s name) So, as we started listing names, we came to Connor (from hubby’s favorite movie, Highlander)…said out loud “Connor Edward…” then looked at each other and said, “Well, there you go.”
Emma Katherine: I had been trying to convince hubby to name a girl Emma. He finally relented but I couldn’t come up with a middle name I felt right about. When I was about 7 months pregnant I was going through family photographs and found a favorite one of hubby’s great, great, grandmother. I turned the picture over and handwritten on the back was “Katherine Ferguson.” I heard a voice in my mind say plainly, “Emma Katherine is your child’s name.”
Walker Francis: We knew it was a boy, and hubby wanted to stick with the “er/or” ending for a boy. I was wanting “Samuel” but I wasn’t sure. I knew I wanted Francis (family name on both sides). Hubby came up with Walker and I couldn’t shake it.
Marin Elizabeth: I really wanted to honor my adopted family somehow. But, I didn’t want to just use one family member’s name really. So, when I got pregnant, I thought it was a girl and came up with “Marin” which is short for “Marinos”, my adopted family’s last name. Elizabeth is a family name on both sides.
Cooper Eaton: my grandmother had died and I decided that we’d honor her with a name for this baby. (as I write this I am realizing how much I had control over the naming thing…hmmm….good thing I have a agreeable spouse) Her name was Amelia Bay Eaton Adkins. So, we used Cooper (which went along with the er/or naming thing and which I loved) and Eaton. Had it been a girl, it would have been Amelia Bay.
Thanks for making me think about these!!