Show & Tell Tuesday: How We Chose The Girls' Names

Today, I'm linking up with Momfessionals for Show & Tell Tuesday! I haven't linked up in a while, but I made myself a note in my calendar to start linking up again!

Today's post is about choosing baby names! I've been blogging for a LONG time, and back when I was pregnant with Megan and Adalyn, I blogged about how we came up with their names (links below). But, I started blogging AFTER having Gretchen and I don't think I've ever shared how her name came to be! Today, we're taking a walk down memory lane, looking at some bump pictures, wee precious baby pictures, and I'm sharing how the girls got their names!

I think I was amongst the first of my friends to get pregnant! So, with my 1st pregnancy, I really had no idea where to start! I look back and think of how far I've come since being pregnant the first go around and how much I've learned since! 

Anyway, since I've always worked with children, I had a list of names in my head that I would not use for baby names. I also had boy names picked out since I was in high school! (Brian Mitchell- after my grandfather and a little boy I use to babysit who I thought was the cutest thing ever.) But, then God decided to throw a curve ball and give me a little girl. DJ and I could not agree on any  names at first! 8 years later, I don't even remember the names that we ran through, but one day, he brought up the name Gretchen. Thankfully, I had never known a Gretchen before and no one had had the chance to ruin it for me. It turns out that Gretchen was the name of a girl that DJ went to high school with. (She just may have been the homecoming queen and cheerleader captain, and I like to tease him that he had a crush on her and that's why he liked the name!) But, once he said Gretchen, I knew that it was the perfect name for our little girl.

Her middle name was much more difficult to come up with. I didn't want the potential for her monogram to spell things when she was married. Yes, in my hormonal pregnancy state, I thought that far ahead. I loved the middle name Anne, after Anne of Green Gables, but she'd have the potentional of becoming, GAW, GAP, GAM, GAY, GAL, or GAS. And once I realized that, Anne was thrown out the window. 

Being a speech therapist, I knew that Gretchen was going to be a hard name to pronounce and it also sounded "harsh". I decided she needed a soft feminine name to offset that harshness. So, I came up with Rose.

On January 26, 2008 our Gretchen Rose was born.

Three years later, we became pregnant again. (That's me on the day I went in for my induction- I was huge!) Once we found out Megan was a girl, we began to run down our list of names. Girly names weren't really on my "list"... I liked Larken, Caroline (oh, I loved that name, but DJ was firm against it!), and a few others that I can't remember. Megan was on the list, because I remember my mom had once said that she wanted to name me Megan. I think I was harassing DJ over the phone and we finally agreed on Megan.

It turns out that the name meaning of Megan was the same as the name meaning of Gretchen. Pearl. I loved that their names meant the same thing and knew that Megan would be perfect. You can read more about ow we chose Megan's name here in my original post. 

On May 24, 2011 Megan Claire was born. 

In 2012, God surprised us with a 3rd pregnancy! Choosing a name this go around was MUCH more difficult than the first two times! The name had to flow sound wise with Gretchen and Megan, therefore it needed to end in an "en" sound. (Yes, I know I'm so weird to think of these things!) I also really wanted her name to have the meaning of Pearl incorporated somehow. Once I looked for the names that meant Pearl, I realized, I couldn't use any of the ones that were left. My first thought was Margaret (it means Pearl) but we called Megan, Meggie, and I couldn't have a Meggie and a Maggie. The other names that meant Pearl were not my favorite, so I decided that this baby would have the middle name of Pearl.

I came up with a list again, and DJ and I would slowly narrow it down. I'd add to it, and then we'd cross more off. I still have the list of names saved to my phone, in case one day, I decide to sit down and fill out her baby book: Madalyn, Elise, Isabel, Lillian, Caroline, Morgan, Brooklyn, Madison, Raegen, and Eleanor. 

Eleanor "Ellie" was probably my favorite, because I knew DJ wouldn't let me have a Caroline. Madalyn was my next favorite, but I couldn't have a Megan and Madalyn and Gretchen. (The two M's would leave out the G.- again, y'all, I am CRAZY when it comes to names!) 

Somehow we came up with Adalyn. I think I read it somewhere and DJ liked it. Or, he pretended too because he was tired of my name ideas and listening to me run through names over and over again.Then, we started doing some research and realized "Ada" and "Addie" were family names on both sides. I added the "lyn" because I really liked "Madalyn."

 At first, we weren't sure how to spell Adalyn's name. There are a million different ways people spell it, and we couldn't come up with a spelling we could agree on. At first it was Adelynn, then Addalynn, which I told DJ was entirely too long, and I finally settled on Adalyn. (PS it's "lynne not LINE") You can read a little bit about Adalyn's name here and here and finally, here, all of these posts were written when I was pregnant with her.

On July 5, 2013, Adalyn Pearl was born.

I knew my family was complete with my three little "Pearls".

"You're a Pearl. You're unique, special, and precious. You're perfect." -anonymous