Names

Choosing names for our children has been more difficult than I thought it would be.

Let's take a stroll down memory lane. 

Remember when Joseph was born and we named him Christopher David? He still has a quilted blanket from my aunt with that name embroidered on it. We liked the name, but it wasn't the right one for him. So when he was 8 weeks old, we changed it to Joseph Ephraim, and that name has fit him very well. [There's more to the story, but that will suffice for today].

When Kathryn was born, we took our time naming her, to make sure we got it right the first time. Five days was all it took to settle on Kathryn Grace.

We knew David's first name before he was born, before I even knew I was pregnant. So, he was easy...except for his middle name. We still debate that one. His birth certificate says Jesse, but when he was blessed, David (his daddy) didn't include a middle name.

Sarah was the easiest to name. We knew that we wanted her to share her middle name with her birth mom, and we also consulted with her birth mom to make a list of acceptable first names. We had it down to two choices when she was born, but after meeting her it was easy to decide on Sarah Elizabeth.

Fast forward to January 24, 2012 when we welcomed this little lady into our family -

We tried to have a short list of names to choose from when she was born, but by Christmastime all the kids had started calling her Anna. I thought it was a nice name -- one that honored both of her grandmothers (LouAnn and Marian). But I wasn't convinced that it was her name. Before she was born I spent hours on baby naming websites, skimmed through three different baby name books, and even polled my friends. 

After she was born the kids continued to call her Anna, and without another name possibility, we just decided to "go with it". The days passed and I tried to figure out what her middle name should be. My midwife was getting impatient for us to fill out all the legal forms.

Then I started to think that maybe Anna wasn't her first name after all. It just wasn't working. Maybe it could be her middle name? So we thought of numerous possibilities and name combos. But nothing seemed quite right.

One Saturday evening as I was dressing her for bed and thinking how she didn't really look like an "Anna" to me, the thought came to my mind: She looks like a R__________(I'll tell you the name at the end). She sure did, but it wasn't one of my favorite names, so I didn't think too much about it, until the next day...

That Sunday at church my friend Kim asked me if we had decided on her name. (Hmmm...I didn't realize that anyone knew we were undecided at this point). I answered that the kids called her Anna, but that I wasn't sold on it. That's when Kim told me that she thought my baby looked like a R_____________. (The exact name that I had thought of the night before).

That night I told David about both experiences and he responded with, "That's what I said the day she was born!" Ooops, I guessed I missed that comment. So, we tried pairing this new name with Anna, either as first or middle name, but they didn't fit well together. David said she needed an "E" name to go with her other name.

A couple of week ago David woke up in the middle of night with the thought: Her name is R_____ E___. He woke me up to tell me. We decided that we would take the hint, so we've officially changed this sweet baby's name to...

Rachel Eve

 David and I haven't had too much trouble switching to calling her Rachel. Joseph has it down too. Sarah and Kathryn are working on it. But baby David is adamantly against it. He calls her Anna still and gets mad when we correct him. He says "NO, NOT!"

On a side note: we noticed a few weeks ago that miss Rachel was born on the same date that her great Grandma Wiseman passed away, one year later. (See this post).