What's In a Name?

Yes, I've been tagged. The initial question, I think, was what did you name your kid(s) and why?

Naming a child is surprisingly an overwhelming responsibility. I always made name lists growing up - not kidding, like since I was 12 and never thought it would be such a big deal when I was older. I loved the unusual, the gender un-specific, all those names that my future husband would hate. It wasn't until we were actually pregnant when we decided that we loved the idea of using our ancestor's names. This was a double positive because it made me fascinated with my own family history. Side note: we have records of one of my maternal lines goes back to the year 6 AD...crazy, eh?

Anyway, my eldest, Bradley Steven, wasn't decided on until 2 days after he was born. We went to the hospital with a list of four names and he just looked like a Bradley to us. Though Bradley isn't in our heritage, we had loved the name all throughout the pregnancy and Steven's best friend from childhood to college days was named Bradley. From the beginning I wanted Steven to be apart of his name, whether it was 1st or 2nd, I didn't care. I just didn't want a Jr. So if Steven were the first name, he would have gone by his middle name.

Bradley makes sure he goes by just that: Bradley; NOT Brad. He's very quick to correct you if you by chance forget -- even if you're his mother.

My little one, Emmy, is actually Amelia Maree. Her name was decided on before we got pregnant. Her middle name is the same as my middle name while her first name is after my great grandmother. Bradley couldn't say Amelia while I was pregnant, so for some reason Emmy stuck. It wasn't until a few months after she was born that Grandma R* (the daughter of Emmy's namesake) called me and told me that her mother's nickname was Emmy as well. We had no idea and I felt an even closer kinship with my great grandmother.

Emmy still has a difficult time saying Amelia. We're not sure when we'll begin calling her that, or if we ever will. It's just too pretty of a name to just be found only on a birth certificate.

As for future children, we'll hopefully will be having to think of one soon if all goes as planned .... wink, wink. We feel very blessed with what we have and feel lucky and priveledged to be parents of such wonderful monkeys.

Now it's my turn to tag you. I'm not sure who's been tagged, but I'm going to tag Terica and Laura, mostly because they're non-Texans and are less likely to have been tagged by the Texas Ring of Bloggers.