Baby Names---Where did you find yours?

Oh with my first one it was easy..I named her Diana, because of my dear sister. Now with my twins I chose Victoria (I am fascinanted with old fashion names) and Gabriel (which was my husbands favorite).

Growing up, I always wanted to know why my parents named me "Erin." But, there wasn't a real meaningful reason; they just liked the name. I wanted my children to grow up with reasons behind their names. My oldest, Emma Brooke is named for my grandmother, Emma, and a childhood friend who was killed in a car wreck, Brooke. In true Southern tradition (I'm from NC, and her father is from MS), we call her by both names. Not a day goes by that I don't remember my grandmother and friend when I call my daughter by name. I am due with our second daughter in October. Again, I wanted a sentimental reason behind her name. We have chosen Margaret Elizabeth, and we will call her Maggie. I think Maggie is cute and softer than Margaret for a little girl, but she will be able to use Margaret (or Elizabeth if she so chooses) when she gets older. Margaret is my husband's grandmother's name, and, between the two of us, we have 5 either grandmothers or great-grandmothers with Elizabeth somewhere in their names.

My baby isn't due until October, but some of our top 3 names for boy or girls came from books (Dagny from Atlas Shrugged, and Atticus from To Kill a Mockingbird) We are a household that loves our books and we wanted something original and unique.

He was past his "due date." We were waiting, and trying so hard to be patient about it. We had his name and we loved it. It was on the nursery wall. It was embroidered on a tote bag waiting by the dresser. But it wasn't "it." I said to my husband, "I'm waiting for a new name. I want it to hit me like a bolt of lightening." "Honey, we've had nearly ten months. I don't think it's going to happen. Besides, we love this name." "I know, I know, but I'm still hoping. It could happen..." And in those waiting days, I was reading Barbara Kingsolver's fabulous "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." I turned the page, and there was a character, a side character only, a roadside farmer in Italy. Amedeo. There he was. We found him. It was instant. He was born a few days later, we wrapped up him in our arms, welcomed Amedeo into our family, and brought him home. Pottery Barn letters came down from the wall. Tote bag sent bag to Lands End for a new one. Our family has been filled to the brim with the love and joy (and laughing! so much laughing) that our "Love God" brings us. Thanks Ms. Kingsolver, thanks lightening bolt, thank YOU our dear Amedeo, three years old next month.

My son, my ex husband named after a friend of his from Germany. My ex had been born in Germany so that was special to his father to pass on. His middle name is after his fathers father and my grandfather whom we lost in 1994 (9 years before my son was born!). My daughter we named 2 years before I got pregnant with her! After I had my son, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and all five of us (her children) agreed that the first girl would be named after her. So my daughters first name is my mothers very unusual middle name, and her middle name is my middle name (which was a family name passed down for generations on both my mom and dads side) The little girl that will be here any day, her name is a mixture of mine (Mae) and my husbands (Ryan) so it is Maeryn. Her middle name will be the same as mine and her older sisters... but is named after her paternal grandmothers middle name (I agreed to this before knowing she had the same name as we do!)

When I found out I was having a little girl, now 6 weeks old, I knew exactly what her name would be. Irelynn Grace was inspired by my lifelong love of the country, Ireland, and my mother's Irish heritage. Grace was my great grandmother's middle name as well. Everyday, I'm so happy with my choices for my daughter's name. I know she has a unique name that showcases some of my great loves in life.

Our most recent addition has the most interesting naming story. When I first found out that I was pregnant I started buying everything purple I could get my hands on - baby carriers, diapers, yarn. I started tossing around the name 'Violet' since I was so intrigued by purple for some reason. As time went on, my husband and I discussed the possibility of naming the baby (if it was a girl) after his mom who had passed away a year and a half earlier. His mom's name was Barbara Anna, both names that I was not very fond of. He also indicated that he would like to have a girl named Eleanor after his Oma. It was at her home that we had been married four years earlier. One afternoon I was looking online for derivatives of Barbara and Anna and wasn't having much luck finding any that I liked. I decided to start researching information on February birth months, as this was the month that his mom's birthday fell in. To my surprise, the birth flower for February was Violet. I remember a feeling of destiny coming over me and thinking to myself, "Well, I guess that this name has chosen you." On June 3, 2010 Violet Eleanor was welcomed to the world. :)

With my first, I "knew" from almost the beginning he was a boy. We never seriously considered any girl names, though out of some guilt-filled obligation, I made a list of girl names I liked, and tucked it away. We chose the name Aiden. It was the only boy name we both loved, and right away. Neither of us had heard the name, ever. About 2 months before my due date, Donald read in the paper that it was the most popular name in the US. Drat. It was too late for us, the name had stuck, we love it still, though we had hoped for unique, he makes up for the name in personality. :) Now, I am pregnant with our second. I don't have any clue about the sex this time. No intuition. I stole all the fun in names from my husband. I chose, rather selfishly (though he does like the names... :)). I picked Elissa.It is a variation of my own middle name. I also chose the name Elija. We are not going to find out the sex of the baby until birth this time, and I wanted to have a name that I could shorten, and still call the baby by name, instead of "it" or "the baby". So, this one is Eli. :)

We decided that we would make the first name unique and then the middle name a family name. My husband has a strong connection with his Scandinavian roots so after much discussion, our first son is Odin and the middle name Matheson after the Scottish clan on my Dad's side of the family. Our second son, the same pattern, Rune (Scandinavian) Edwy (my husbands Grandfather's name). It was very challenging to find their names as I didn't want something too weird or a name that I didn't feel that I could whisper lovingly (Wolfgaard-yes, husband wanted this name) but was unique enough that it wasn't going to catch on so by the time they are in school there's five others with their name. But I also wanted to keep a family connection with in their names.

We had been trying to conceive for 8 months with no luck, and we were fighting known fertility problems. All around us, friend and family were getting pregnant, and we felt horrible! I was walking my dog one morning, and praying for some sort of sign that we were finally pregnant. I had a strong feeling that I needed to go home and open my Bible. I did so, and I turned right to the book of Job, last chapter. My eye fell upon one word that I had never read before (I had actually not read much of Job): Keziah. The name of one of Job's daughters. A feeling of peace and certainty came over me, and I knew right then that I was pregnant with a girl. Eight months later, Keziah Faith was born to us in our home!

I had a really hard time thinking of boy names during each pregnancy. When I was pregnant with my first son, I became focused on the name Oscar. I thought it was absolutely perfect. My husband wasn't so sure. "Come on," I pleaded. "His name would be Oscar Beyer." As soon as I heard it, I burst out laughing. Immediately we both knew that it would not be the name that would work. We chose Oliver instead, which was a much better fit.

As an undergraduate, I studied religion and mythology, and I particularly enjoyed the unique names from Greek, Norse, and Egyptian mythology/religion. When my husband and I first learned I was pregnant, I immediately began searching for names for our future child, which I believed to be a boy. Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology, became our favorite, and we started calling our dear son by the name at less than 10 weeks along. When the time came for delivery, Odin lived up to his name, which is the origin for Wednesday, by arriving on Wednesday, April 22nd and also Earth Day. He was given the middle name Timothy in honor of my father.

The only hard part about choosing our kids' names was choosing a boy name, as we chose not to find out the sex. The girls names just sort of "came to me". The boys, on the other hand we never were satisfied with. Good thing we ended up with all girls! ;-D

I wanted my son to have a strong, meaningful name that would inspire him. We gave him my deceased father's name, Michael, which means "who is like God" and for his middle name, his other grandfather's name, Bruce. I believe names are very powerful, and naming children after an ancestor gives them a sense of responsibility to the name.

I have an older sister that I've never met. My parents suffered the loss of a full-term stillborn with their third pregnancy. They named her Shawna. My parents had difficulty conceiving again, and when they did my Mom struggled with several health problems during the pregnancy that she carried me. In my early years of college, I made a vow that if I were to ever have a son I would name him Sean after my unborn sister, because I have her to thank for my parents fighting so hard for me to be born.

My daughter's name is Erin Hope. Since we are Irish, I wanted a traditional Irish name for her first name, but my mom pretty much vetoed every name I liked. Then I found Erin in a baby name book, and realized that while it isn't an Irish name, it is similar to the Gaelic word for Ireland, so it's close enough. My mom loved it, too, so Erin it was. Then I had to find a middle name. Erin's birth had ended my military career. I got out because I knew I couldn't be a good soldier and a good single mom. Although I didn't believe in the war, I wanted to be in Iraq with my unit, not at home huge and pregnant. I was in school, majoring in Civil Engineering, and a friend mentioned one day that an engineering degree gives hope for the future. I thought about it, realized I wouldn't be working on an engineering degree at that time if not for the baby, so by the transitive property, the baby gives hope for the future. For that reason, her name is Erin Hope. My son's name is Orren Kiet. Again, I insisted that we do an Irish first name, and it got botched. LOL I wanted to a Gaelic spelling of it, that being Oran or Orin. They were too close to Erin, though, so we decided to use the Hebrew spelling of the same name, Orren. It also means Pine Tree, and since he was born in Georgia, under the pines, we thought that was fitting. Also, my dad's favorite uncle had that first name, so it's also a bit of a nod to generations past. Kiet is a Thai name meaning Honor. My husband is Thai, so we wanted a Thai name, too. Plus, it's awesome that our son's initials are O.K. Your life CANNOT turn out bad if your initials are O.K. And no, I did not mean for my kids' names to rhyme. It just so happened that way. The next baby will be Sirikit Clare or Chaiyo David. Sirikit for the Queen of Thailand, and Clare for the last county my family lived in before leaving Ireland. Chaiyo is a Thai name we like, and David is my husband's middle name.

We had such a hard time naming my son (born Oct 2009) so friends and family started bring us everything they found with names on it! We finally found the perfect name on a high school graduation program! This time around (due April 2011 with #4) we don't know where to begin again! Names are tough - especially naming boys in my opinion.

My husband had a dream when we were beginning to date that we had a daughter named Arrianna, he was amazed at how real the dream felt at the time. So after we were married, got pregnant and found out we were having a girl we knew exactly what to name her! It fits her perfectly and I could not have picked a better one for her!

When I was pregnant, many nights my husband and I would lie awake reading through naming books from the library. Over time we compiled a list of 5 girl names and 5 boy names on my iPhone. We set about whittling the list down before our planned homebirth. Instead, at 34 weeks, I found myself having an unexpected emergency cesarean. Laying on the OR table, I had that list on my iPhone. So, instead of a private decision, the whole OR staff and our midwife helped us pick Orin for our little girl. It felt like the community starting raising her at birth.

When I was pregnant with DD1, I wanted to name her Kate. My mom told me that I had to give her a formal name, but I wasn't fond of Katherine or the like. My mom died unexpectedly one month before our daughter was born. We named her Lilly, because it was my mom's favorite suggestion. Her middle name is Suzanne after my middle name and my mom, Susan. DD2 is Caroline Cathleen. Caroline, because we liked it, and Cathleen after my younger sister.