Thursday, February 7, 2013

The Story Of Your Name

Once, years ago, my daughter came home from her first day of school and said in one class they'd had to share about themselves: their favorite color, book, movie, how they got their name....That's a weird question. How they got their name. But I smiled waiting for my daughter to tell the story, and she said she just shrugged.  She had no idea where her name came from.

What the heck?!!! She really doesn't know?

Well, let me tell you both, my wonderful, much loved children, the story of your name......

My son, my first born, your story isn't as exciting as it is about how I knew my first son would be named after my father. It had been a wish I'd had since I was little, a boy to name Allen David. Then I met your dad, and his family tradition is to give every boy the middle name Allen. He would not budge on that. And before we were even married, when we were first engaged, it is a point I gave up. And I am so glad I did. You were David Allen before you were born, years before, and the moment I saw you, I knew your dad had been right. You are David, and you are perfect.

My daughter, your story involves an ultrasound and breakfast at the Bluebird. My pregnancy with you was harder, with more bed rest and contractions and a general feeling of this isn't going to be quite as easy as the first time. So at our second ultrasound, while Grandma watched your brother and your dad sat with me holding my hand, the tech asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby. With your brother, we waited to be surprised, but with you we said yes. Please tell us! The chance of you being a girl was 80%. I'll take those odds! We retrieved your brother and the three of us went to the Bluebird for breakfast. As we sat there, your Dad and I couldn't stop smiling. A girl! We really only had a boy name picked out. I remember thinking of girl names, discarding the one we'd picked out if David had been a girl, and I finally said I like the name Leah. Your Dad instantly agreed. I said it over and over in my mind and I knew, if you were a girl, you would be Leah. And after some consideration, we gave you a middle name that has family ties, we named you Leah Catherine after Grandma Mary Catherine.

Even now, going on 18 and 16 years since I felt your fluttery kicks beneath my hands, when I wondered who you were going to be and how this whole separate person growing inside me would work, I love your names.  To me you will always be David and Leah, and if you adopt nicknames as you grow, or shorten your names to Dave and Lee, you will always be David and Leah to your mother!


11 comments:

  1. We had a family tradition of middle names starting with D, we followed it with DD1 but had to change it with DD2 as we could not agree on one that sounded like it belonged.

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  2. Awesome! I think it is so important for children to know these things (especially if it's a good story!!).

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  3. Fun post to read. I like to call my children by their full first given names, too. Nicknames are fine from other people.

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  4. So sweet. In class this week I had a group presentation on the Literary analyses of names.. We spoke of the importance of names and how parents spend so much time pondering on names for their kids, and authors ponder names for their characters. Then I get home and read this. We were right all along. (:

    Thanks for linking up Michelle!

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  5. I always love to hear how people came up with their children's names.

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  6. Beautiful story and lovely names. I usually refer to my oldest as "Daniel" instead of "Dan" or "Danny." I never knew why exactly I did that, yet your well-articulated piece certainly has me thinking!

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  7. So nice for them to know the story behind their names. My first name is Winifred and as a kid it was not common and it was my mom's step mother's name. I was nicknamed Winnie and I can tell you people always connect me with "The Pooh" but I know the story behind the name.

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  8. Aw, this is really sweet. I love your tone, you really express yourself well. I chose this prompt, too, and I love reading about the stories behind the names.

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  9. So sweet. I agree that no matter what they end up being called, they'll always be the names we chose for them!

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  10. That was loverly. Thanks for sharing.
    ~Just Jill

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  11. I love hearing stories about where names come from--it always fascinates me how we decide something so momentous for another person. Our boys all have my husband's initials and our daughter has mine. We wanted some kind of tradition, but didn't want to pass whole names on. Forntunately, we're not the sort of family that goes in for monogrammed things...I could see how that could've been a problem. :)

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