springdellgirl

A Rose By Any Other Name




These are the things I ponder while teaching my CTR 4 Primary class. What is in a name? This has been a favorite topic of mine to ruminate upon since reading Freakonomics. This Sunday I had to find out from all the parents of the kids in my class why they picked the name they did for their child. It was highly enjoyable. CTR 5 (Ailey's class) had the same lesson so I got to explain why we picked that particular name for her. Again enjoyable.

I love naming. Seriously. It is the best part of being pregnant besides the baby at the end of nine horrific months. Apparently I have always enjoyed this since my little girl journals are filled with lists of "names I like" and "what I want to name my kids".(I apparently REALLY wanted girl/boy twins named Ashley and Anthony.) I am somewhat sad that I don't get to name any future kids but feel good that I got to use most of my favorites.

I was thinking about my name and why my parents picked it for me. I like my name and have never wished it was anything different. My name is Kristin Marie. My mom named me Kristin after her best friend that she grew up with and my father picked Marie after his aunt who passed away before I was born. My mom wanted to name me Kristin Kara and my dad wanted to name me Nancy Marie (Ew!) so they compromised. If I would've been a boy my name would have been Scott John.

Reilly was going to be named McKenna Marie until I saw her on ultrasound and just knew that her name was Reilly not McKenna. Incidentally, all my children's names were picked after seeing them on ultrasound and having their gender determined. Reilly was the name of the niece of a guy my college BFF Tiffany was dating once upon a time. Tiffany had the "pleasure" of spending some time with little "Riley" who was somewhat obnoxious and I heard many hilarious imitations of Riley. (Tiff-- to this day when Reilly gets obnoxious and whiny I like to bust out with "Where's Pork? Where's Pork!!" to her utter irritation and confusion.) Tyler and I both liked Reilly and picked her middle name to be Victoria after my mom. If Reilly would have been a boy we would've named her Braedic Tyler or Braedic McKinnon. Braedic is the name of my friend Tiffany's darling younger brother, Brady.

Kameron's name was going to be Braedic (our #1 name) but after seeing him on the ultrasound I felt "inspired" on the elevator at the hospital that his name wasn't Braedic or even our #2 name Cade but actually our #3 name Cameron....which we changed the spelling to a "K" in honor of me I guess. What can I say? I like the letter K. We didn't decide on his middle name until after he was born. We were torn between Tyler and McKinnon. My grandpa McKinnon had just passed away and we wanted to honor him. I let Tyler decide the middle name. He picked Tyler in the delivery room and I'm glad he did because Kameron is our only boy and I'm glad that he is named after his dad. If Kameron would've been a girl his name would've been Ailey.

Once we knew that Ailey was a girl and we saw her dainty little face on the ultrasound we knew that her name was Ailey. When I was four years old I had as friend named Ailey and I always thought that it was such a darling name. Ailey is a name that was on all the lists of names in my journals...that and Cameron...ironically. The problem was picking a middle name. We wanted to honor one of Tyler's grandmothers who were great ladies but we weren't too crazy about Alice or Helen. So we were going to "fancy them up" a bit and go with either Elise (for Alice) or Helene. We couldn't decide and went back and forth. When we got home from the ultrasound I looked through our baby name book to see what the meanings of both names were to see if that would help us decide. Oddly enough I found the name "Ailey" (which I had never seen before) and Ailey is Scottish for Alice and Finnish for Helen. I got the chills. Her name was meant to be. We picked the name Eva to be her middle name after my Great-Great Grandmother. If Ailey would've been a boy her name would've been Braedic.

The name Bryn is my sister Jordin's middle name. I really love it. After Ailey was born there was a little girl in our ward whose name was Brinn and I thought it was just darling. I didn't always think Bryn was a cute name. When my mom was pregnant with Jordin after she found out that she was having a girl my parents decided to name her Kiera Lauren. I just LOVED that name. I thought it was so pretty. Well somewhere along the line they decide to change her name and neglected to tell us. I remember going into my mom's hospital room and seeing little "Kiera" only to be told that they had decided to name her Jordin Bryn instead. I thought it was the most hideous name ever. Now I love the name but I really had my heart set on Kiera. :)

Two very early ultrasounds told us that Bryn was going to be a boy. Once again Braedic just didn't fit and I couldn't see the face because the baby was too little and I just didn't feel inspired. Finally we decided on the name Callum which we both really loved. My VERY favorite name was Seamus but that didn't seem to go over very well with our family even though Tyler and I both really liked it. I also liked the name Asa but it is the name of my friend Rebecca's son and I didn't want to steal his cool and unique name. So we decided on Callum McKinnon. We thought Kam and Cal would be cute names for brothers. The third ultrasound revealed that Bryn was DEFINITELY not a boy and Tyler had his own psychotic break in the doctor's office. I was so excited to use the name we had picked out for a girl... Bryn Kaitrin. My sisters have a friend named Meghan Caitrin and we were in Dining Divas together and I kept seeing it on all her emails and I thought it was so cute. Once again we swapped the "C" for a "K". It also worked out perfectly because it is a Celtic name that honors two of my grandmothers Kate and Kathy. We LOVE the Celtic names in this family!!

I'm still loving the names we have chosen for our children. They fit them perfectly. I still wish we could've used Braedic because it is such a cool name and Tyler never got to use his favorites ...Lance (that was never going to happen) and Taylor (I could've been talked into that one.) Reilly wishes that her name was Vanessa and names every heroine of every story that she has ever written Vanessa and last week Kameron told us not to call him "Kam" anymore because his name is Kameron (so I guess Kamers, Kammy, Kamer-lamer-ding-dong, Kameroni, and Kameronius are out too? BUMMER.) Oh well...they will come around.

Speaking of Vanessa...Reilly was thrilled to see the "original" Vanessa (and the only Vanessa I know) at a stake function on Saturday only solidifying that Vanessa is a GREAT name! I am forever grateful for Vanessa helping me to feel less crazy about my psychotic break!! I owe you!!

So back to names...Tyler and I were discussing our names. When Tyler and I met we were known to all as Kris and Ty. I miss them. Kris and Ty were a good time. Kris and Ty rocked. Kristin and Tyler live in a world of mortgages, bills, snotty 13 year olds, homework, church callings and baby poop. Kristin and Tyler are good people: they try hard; but sometimes they take themselves a bit too seriously. It's not like Kris and Ty don't make appearances...they do but they are fleeting. Here's to more Kris and Ty in 2010. Let's hope they come to stay because Kristin and Tyler are a little bit stressed out these days and need to LIGHTEN UP!!

So...do you like your name?