The Girls' Names

One blog I love to read is http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/. Each Friday she does a post in her "Show Us Your Life" series. I'm not linking up, but I am doing a post on her topic this week: Your Kids' Names. I'm not sure I've done a lot of writing about how I came up with my girls' names here. We've saved them to share with others until the births, and that does cut down on discussion a little bit. :) So here goes...

Joanna Rose
I knew I wanted to use Rose as a middle name so it was just a matter of coming up with something that fit -- _____ Rose Pence. Rose is my mom's name, and I've always loved it. I wanted something uncommon without being too weird. I wanted something that people had heard of and probably knew how to spell without it being on the top 10 list at all recently. (Even though I love my name, I have some issues with how common Jessica is.) I was also pretty sure I wanted something with three syllables because both Rose and Pence are short. So Matt and I started brainstorming. I googled. I used books and websites, searching for the perfect name. Abigail was actually on my short list. Don't you just love "Abigail Rose?" But it was just a little too popular for right now. (In fact, Joanna has two little friends with that name or almost -- they are "Abby.") I literally think we were stopped at the light turning into our neighborhood when we made the decision about Joanna. I'm not sure that's where we came up with it; I can't remember! One website I used actually let me choose to just search three syllable names; that may have been where I came up with it. I also liked the idea of using a name from the Bible, even though I wasn't dead set on it. Wherever it was we stumbled on "Joanna," we realized just how perfect it is. It's very close to Matt's mom's name without being exactly her name. I definitely don't mind using exact names of relatives, but I think having two Joann Pences in the same town attending the same church could get a little confusing. :) We were fairly certain this was going to be our little girls' name, but we reserved the right to change our mind! We were sure enough, though to take a little trip to Michaels to get some wooden letters for her room. We were painting furniture "dancing green," and wanted to go ahead and paint the letter, too. In fact, Kim -- I don't know if you remember this (probably not!). We had picked out the letters J-O-A-N-N-A and put them in our basket when we ran into our friend Kim. She had recently had her son Caleb and was out (alone!) on a crafty shopping trip. We covered up the letters in the basket and tried not to be rude! We also had them laying out (freshly painted) later when Matt's mom and dad came over. We had to hide them quick! When she was born, we didn't even consider another name, she was our Joanna Rose Pence.

Natalie Marie
Natalie was a little tougher, because we'd already used the grandmothers' first names! I felt pretty much the same about Natalie as I did Joanna -- I wanted something not too popular but that we'd heard of. I also wanted it to go with Joanna. I decided I wanted to use "Marie" as a middle name, but we didn't tell anybody this time, I think. Many people knew Joanna's middle name early on. Marie is my mom's middle name, and it appears a couple of other times on our family tree, as well. The hunt was on! I won't tell you most of our contenders, because I think many of them are still on the list if we have another girl. :) We even had another option for the middle name. Oh, I forgot to mention that I also like names that are recognizable as either male or female. Gender neutral names bug me a little. (But if your name or your kid's name is gender neutral, I love it for you!) So anyway, we had Natalie and we were just working on something that fit -- _____ Marie Pence. There were lots of names on that list. I actually bought books this time. Matt was a lot more vocal this go-around, which was nice! However, I remember a lot of his talking being like this: "No, I don't like that one, but I don't have any more suggestions for you." I may be exaggerating a little. :) We had it narrowed down to a pretty short list, but Natalie due date was drawing very near! (Turns out we had lots of time to decide!) One of my very favorites was "Isabel" or "Isabella," but much like "Abigail" from Joanna's search, it was just too popular right now. In fact, I think it may be the current most popular name. One of the other names we really loved was "Natalie," and I think "Natalie Marie" sounds very pretty. Natalie's a bit more popular than Joanna, but it's not super high on the list. And Natalie actually means "born on Christmas." She wasn't, but we kept thinking she might be! Again, we'd settled on the name before the birth, but reserved the right to change our minds. Again, we didn't.

#3
Ha! We don't even know whether this one's a boy or a girl yet! And one thing I don't like is having to work on two lists. Not that I haven't done a little thinking about either eventuality. One place I'm going to search this time is the family trees from both sides. Did you hear that, Grandparents? Better start gathering those names!
I guess Joanna has already picked out the name though. Apparently today she told Gran she was having a baby brother and was going to name him "Paci" (you know, like pacifier). I think it has quite a ring to it, don't you think? Paci Pence.

Thanks for listening to my rambles. I'd love to hear how you all came up with your children's names!