{What IS in a name?}

{Hannah Banana with her Monkey}

Recently with several friends pregnant I've been thinking a lot about WHY it is so hard to chose a name. For some it comes easily. This was not the case for us. A friend of ours believes the dumber the name--the dumber the kid. As educators we have found this to be semi true lol.

A quick story. One of my friends is in the Teach for America program and teaches in inner city Maryland. At her school there is a girl named Le-A and the teacher assumed it was pronounced Lea (as in princess) so she was called Lea for a few weeks. It was discovered when her mother came in that she had been pronouncing the name wrong when the mom told the teacher "the dash is not silent." That is right. Le-a was pronounced LeDasha. Wow.

There are unique names (my best friend Rosalie is going to name her first daughter Chaelie combining Michael and Rosalie pronounced Calie) There are trendy names (Addison) and then there are Classic names with Unique spelling (a friend of ours named their son Cyle like Kyle. They pronounce it Kyle but every time I see it written down the teacher in me has a hard time flipping it in my head from how it is phonetically pronounced (like cyclone) to how they want it pronounced--sorry Joy =) Then there are names of Celebrities like Paris. My poor friend has been dying to name her daughter Paris because A) she has always loved the city and B) her husband served his mission there. It is unfortunate that Hilton and Jackson had to ruin it but ya know-- it doesn't mean a regular person can't redeem it!

Megan asked me why we felt we had been prompted to name our angel Hannah. After all it was NEVER on any list, we NEVER discussed it. After 8 months of pregnancy with less than three weeks to go we went to the temple and we were prompted to name her Hannah Elizabeth. I'll admit that I resisted a little at first. After all that wasn't even on our list and she was almost here. We'd just thrown out our favorite name yet (Paige) and we were leaning towards that...in fact while I was laboring in the hospital Adam told me, "someday I'd really like a daughter named Paige" (yeah thanks honey--lets talk about having more kids NOW ok...that will make me feel better).

So I considered WHY we had been prompted to name our little one Hannah. Hannah means "Gods Gift." Elizabeth means "God's Promise." For those of you who have met Hannah you have to know she is one of the sweetest little things you have ever met. She smiles at everyone, she can be passed around an entire room and just love on you when she gets to you. She doesn't cry unless she wakes up from her nap with no one to be found around her. She is just perfect. I'm not saying that just as her mother. She has been sick but aside from her coughing you wouldn't know it because she has the sweetest disposition. Every time I see her she reminds me that she is a gift from God. She also came on her own time. Some of you know that Adam approached me after over two years of marriage and said "I think it is time we start our family." Good timing Adam because little did we know I was already three weeks pregnant. So she was literally gifted to us. I don't know why we were given Hannah without even trying. Many times I don't deserve her but I know that she has made me a better person. I know that I am better because of her.

When we look at our sweet baby she IS a Hannah. There would be no other name. She is not a Samantha, a Brooklyn, a Paige or a Sydney. She is Hannah. So while I resisted it at first, I know that she is and always was Hannah.

Now when we have our next baby we are totally in the lurch because it took us SO LONG to find Hannah a name we better hope we get some inspiration for our next one =)

Someone told me while I was pregnant that a beautiful baby does not need a crazy name to help it stand out. I think there are some beautiful unique names (I really like Chaelie) but I also love the names that are classically beautiful. I love Hannah...the name and the baby :)

Each baby has it's own personality, its own name, and why is it so difficult to name our baby? Because a name is the first gift you give to your most precious possession.