Name Game

Well, now that I've been tagged (thanks, Amanda), I will play along and tell the stories of how we came about naming our 3 children.

Alex Christopher is our "first born" and I remember when we found out he would be a boy- it was December, right before Christmas, and it was a happy day- see, I had an older brother and I, in my heart always wanted a boy as a first child...I know it isn't how everyone feels, and I would've treasured a girl too, but this was extra special. We had always talked about names throughout our years of dating and after marriage, (by the way, he was born one month to the day before our two year anniversary), and we never argued about them. My rule, as the mother to be, and one carrying the child, was that I chose the name, and he could pick the middle name, which, of course, I could veto if I didn't like it! So, pretty much, I hold the power here...clearly I think it should be my choice, though I am thankful he always liked what I liked! Okay, so we never wanted to name our children a long name and then shorten it, we just wanted to name them what they would be called, so hence we chose Alex instead of Alexander, which we knew would never stick. We always liked that name, we thought it was a strong name, and it fell nicely with our last name- and let me tell you, having a vowel for a first letter last name is not easy when it comes to choosing names! Dana has a sister with A as her first name, so it sounded good to us. Dana will tell you that we chose Alex because he had a good friend growing up whose name was Alex, but like I stated above, I chose the name, and he thought it would be perfect. As for Christopher, well, we didn't intend on naming after family, but we love, I mean love, Dana's brother, Chris, so it was easy to choose Christopher after him (and I wanted a longer middle name since Alex is only 4 letters!) Oh, and a side note: a few years ago, I was talking to my grandparents about their parents and grandparents, and I came to find out that my Great-Great-Grandfather, from Hungary was named Alex! Not Alexander, but Alex! Hopefully we will meet someday, and perhaps that is how we got to that- you never know!

Leah Nicole Next came the first girl...and again, I remember driving to the ultrasound appointment, all along thinking it was another boy! I wore a pink shirt and painted my toes blue, so it could've gone either way, however, the song "A New Day Has Come", by Celine Dion was playing as I drove there, and it is about her son, so I truly was convinced it would be a boy. Nope! I made her go over it again, and she was very certain of this one! I was ecstatic, I must say, I really was very happy to have a girl after the boy. We truly loved the name Leah, though it means, "tired and weary", but because it is such a pretty name, and it fit how I felt with her during my pregnancy! Just kidding, she was easy to carry too! Dana, again, would say that we named her that after a girl he went on one date with- as if! Yeah, not so...we just thought it up, and it stuck. Nicole is her middle name, and we really just picked that out because it was hard choosing a name to follow a first name with many vowel sounds...you try it! I didn't know any other Leah's and so that is another reason. When we were first dating, we were watching the Rose Bowl Parade, and the queen that year was named Aliya- I so loved that name and spelling! I was convinced that we would have a daughter and name her that and spell it that way...well, I did compromise a tad on this one, because though Dana loved it too, he thought the spelling would complicate things for her, so we changed it to a better phoenitic way...it fits much better.

Celeste Avery is our baby, and the sweet crazy daisy that completes our family. She is such a gem, and so fun...as I have written before...but her name came about a little differently. When we were pregnant with Alex, and before knowing he was a boy, we picked the name Celeste for a girl...well, our friends who were in our ward at the same time as us, had a girl and chose Celeste for her. So, her name went back into the pot for the future. When we had Leah, we loved it as a first girl name, so Celeste became the baby girl name we would pick if we did have another daughter. It was difficult coming up with a middle name for her- I really wanted to incorporate Blake into her name somehow, since we knew she was our last and I love a friend named Blake (a boy), but it just didn't fit as a middle name, either. The only name we loved was Avery, and so that is it. Seriously, no fancy story with that either, just now it looks so pretty with Celeste, and she is so pretty! We love that her name is angelic, and many, many people we meet as we are out comment on what a beautiful name it is...she is special too!

Well, there you have it- nothing too exciting, but 3 amazing kids later, we wouldn't pick anyother name for any of them- we love them just as much today, if not more than the day they were born. We are very blessed!
Now, to keep this going, I tag Bonnie, Es, Laurie and Tina! Let's hear it!