I recently was talking to a mom who was about to find out the sex of her baby. I was of course asking all the normal questions about what she would name her kids and she asked me how we picked our kids names.
I think it's funny because most of our kids names are just because we liked them. Each of them have special middle names and I love that, but first names were just ones we loved.
Cayden James – Cayden was in a baby book I'm sure. He was almost named Addison. James is my Grandpa's middle name, and who I'm also named after. My grandpa is one of my favorite people ever to know. I'm honored to be named after him, and one day I hope Cayden knows what an honor it is for him to be named after Frank James Self as well.
Amos Dowensky – Amos was a name we loved and also a totally awesome person in the bible. Dowensky is Amos' name that his mom in Haiti gave him, and we wanted him to have that forever. It's a big part of who he is. The other name I wanted was Theo. Aaron told me everyone would think Huxstable. I think all of us in our 30's would have, but none of his friends. Anyhow, he's such an Amos and not a Theo!
Deacon Aaron – I think I read about the name Deacon in People magazine because Reese Whitherspoon has a son named Deacon that's a few years older than our Deacon. Everyone we told only had one frame of reference, and that was Deacon Jones. This was our first child through adoption and we wanted him to truly know that he was his father's child and had all that came with a family, and so he has his daddy's name as his middle name. The other name in the hat for him was Grayson. He's so a Deacon!
Story Magda – Ah this pains me that I'm not sure where we got Story's name. I truly think I also read it in a magazine. How can she only be five and I've already forgotten this? Her middle name is also the name that her mother in Haiti had given her. Except her mom had an extra “r” in there. Margda. Weird, I know. I hated to change it, but we droped the “r”. I absolutely am in love with her name and feel that it sums up her so well. God will for sure forever be writing an amazing story in her life.
That's where our kids got their names, where did your kids get their names?
Ah! I love hearing how people choose their children’s names. Always intriguing to me (and good insight to how people think). Our kids’ names are complicated to say the least. We had three criteria for them to meet ::
1. Biblical
2. Named after Jonathan
3. Named after a Beatles song
It took a little plotting but all three kids are named after those three things. Clearly we make things way more complicated than they need to be. 😉
Ya’ll crack me up with the criteria for the Beatles songs!
How did you approach changing Amos and Story’s names with the kids? Were they called by their first names in Haiti while the adoption was in process? We are adopting and I really, really want to change the names. I’ve read all kinds of things on this, but want to hear your take.
Choosing a name was probably one of the top 5 reasons I was excited about having kids. Okay, maybe not top 5, but still.
We had a girl first – Aubrey Mae. Aubrey was a name that my husband and I heard on a television show while I was pregnant. We both loved it the second we heard it. I also like that it’s not ever been on the top 10 baby names list. Mae is my definition of the perfect middle name for a girl. No special meaning – just think it sounds so cute.
Then we had our boy – Parker James. Parker has been my first choice boy’s name probably since high school. A strong, solid name that works for both a child and a grown man. Luckily my husband was on board with it from the first time we talked about kids names. James is after my husband’s grandfather to honor his memory as he was certainly the patriarch of their family.
okay, so i was supposed to be candice. but my mom had been laying out at the pool a LOT during her last month of pregnancy and i came out tan. ha! they decided that i looked like the spice ginger… but what they didn’t realize was the fact that ginger is RED. hilarious! they didn’t tell me about this until a few years ago!
Ginger, that is hilarious … and you are still tan!!!
Our 1st little guy’s name is Oliver Emmanuel. After a long hard road w/ adoption we knew that God had been w/ us. So Emmanuel was a must for his name.
Our 2nd {brand new} little guy’s name is Oakely Elijah. Oakley is based on Isaiah 61:3 in that we pray he becomes an Oak of righteousness and feel that he has been planted by the Lord into our family.
Our son was adopted at age five, so we kept his Bulgarian name “Nasko” (rhymes with Osco). We used my maiden name as his middle name, so he’s now Nasko Malcolm.
We’re expecting a baby boy in June, and the reason we learned the gender early was to be able to decide on a name and begin practicing it with Nasko (who has a speech delay). We had only decided on a girl’s name (Evelyn Ann) and weeks later, we still don’t have a name for our boy!
We like older names (1920s era) and we know the middle name will be Kennedy after my grandfather.
Any suggestions for _______ Kennedy Newingham?! Help a Mama out!!
We have five children, from 29 years old down to 13. Our oldest son is Brody Blaize. We chose his name out of a book just because we liked it. He and his wife have started their own adoption journey, which is what led me to your page. In the lull before having our second child, my husband named his business Triple B. (Our surname also begins with “B”) When our second son came along, we looked through all the books but couldn’t find a name we loved beginning with our favorite letter. We turned to a U.S. atlas, of all things, and so he became Bonner Blue, after the town in Montana. For several years, we felt our family was complete. Then God began to nudge us about having more children. Seven years later, our first little girl came along. Since this would be our last (hahaha), we chose more B names. Brylee, because we liked it, and Beth because it is my middle name. All done, right? Not so fast… When I got pregnant with child number 4, we were at a loss for more names. Friends started calling with suggestions. My husband was reading a book with a character whose surname was Bridger, and a friend called during that period who also suggested that name. Bridger seemed a good pairing with Boone, so now we have Bridger Boone. I knew from the beginning that our last little surprise was a girl. We are a rodeo family, and I had heard the name Bliss while watching a rodeo on television. We named her Bliss Brielle, and that completed our little family of five “triple B’s.” We even had another name in reserve if Bliss had been a boy. But my oldest absolutely refused to go with that letter when his first child came along!