What's in a Name?

I had a friend come over last night who is 27 weeks pregnant with her first child. Don't worry, the only really morbid thing I was thinking was "I know what your baby looks like right now." She knows what happened to Lucas, but I don't talk much about it to any pregnant woman unless they ask. Anyway, we were talking about baby names and it got me thinking about my own children's names. This post is for them so if you are bored by it, I'm sorry.

Maxwell-
We had tossed around many names but when we had our 20 week ultrasound and saw him on the screen, we both said 'Max!' I was so opposed to naming my child a trendy name. I wanted something unique. Little did I know, his name was just starting to become popular. The first time I realized this was when he was about 3 years old and we were at the park and there were 5 other little boys named Max. Sorry son. To make matters worse (we really hoped people wouldn't catch on to the Maxy Pat thing), your middle name is Patrick after your great great grandfather.

Mitchell-
I had hoped to get a girl this time around so I struggled with a boy name. Late one night, Russ was watching a movie called Top Gun and he came running in to the bedroom saying, "what about Mitchell?!" I loved it. Tom Cruise's character's name in the movie was Pete Mitchell. Not that I am a huge Tom Cruise fan, but it worked. Your middle name is after my beloved grandfather Hyrum.

Shelby-
Shelby was a nick name we had when she was in my belly because with a family full of boys who loved cars, shelby was natural. I was not, however, going to name her after a car. So for the first 2 days after she was born, her name was Bridget. We really wanted to use my Irish heritage, and we both liked the name. The problem was, we had called her Shelby so much before she was born. The day we left the hospital, Russ and I were talking about her and Russ said to me, "What is her name again?" I knew she had to be shelby. Your middle name Violet is after Russ' Grandmother's name and my Grandmother's middle name.


Lucas-
Once again, I struggled with the boy thing. Coming from a family with all girls, I always pictured myself with a house full of girls. I have come to learn girls are harder than I first thought and that I am a great boy mom. One girl is enough for our house.
I had suggested the name Lucas to Russ a couple of times and the week before he died, we agreed on it. It is my favorite name. We worked really hard finding just the right name for him. His middle name is Arthur after Russ' grandfather.


Quentin-
Your name was a natural one. We wanted a name that honored our heritage, either Irish or Brittish. I wanted to honor Lucas' place in our family, so your name naturally means 'the fifth'. And, the year you were born was the year Quentin Cook was made an Apostle in our church. What an easy way to remember a bit of church history. Your middle name is after your Dad. An easy choice to wrap up our family.

I want my kids to know that their name was not an accident. They honor their ancestors by carrying their names. We painstakingly picked each and every name to make sure it would fit them perfectly. Sometimes it was an easy choice, sometimes not, but none the less, it was chosen with much love.