A Rose By Any Other Name...

I've long wanted to write a post about how our kids got their names.  With Nellie's birth, this seems an opportune time...

Nellie:

I'm not exactly sure where my kids first heard the name Nellie or how they got it into their heads that their future little sister would have that name.  It's possible that they heard it from me at some point, because it is a name I liked, but regardless, they latched onto it and spent years talking about their baby sister, Nellie.  

When we found out we were having a girl, I suggested we might consider other name possibilities.  They all looked at me like I was crazy. "But her name is NELLIE," they insisted.  Apparently it wasn't open for debate.

Her middle name was an entirely different story.  I wanted her middle name to be Azure, to stick with the "Blue" theme.  Mark and Aubree initially agreed to stick with a "color" theme and wanted Violet as a middle name.  The boys vacillated between the two options, but Azure had a pretty consistent lead.  

Then one day, the option "Beth" popped up.  Aubree and Mark were immediately converted (it didn't hurt that Aubree's two best friends are BETHany and BETHelle), and it didn't take long before the boys were likewise in agreement.  I was solidly out voted.  I guess it's a good thing I've always loved the name Beth as well.

Aubree:

When I was an early teen, I was at a mall food court with my equally young cousin.  A creepy guy came up to us saying he worked for a magazine and started asking us "survey" questions.  After asking the questions, he asked us our names.  Both of us felt uncomfortable telling him, but after stammering for a moment, we did.  Afterwards, we determined that we needed to make up pseudonyms so if anyone ever asked our names again and we didn't want to tell the truth, we had a readily available answer.  
The name I came up with was Aubrey Winters.

Fast forward almost 10 years.  I meet a really cute guy in my ward and we start hanging out a little.  We're at a BYU basketball game and he starts telling a missionary story about how Elder Nelson visited his mission.  He gets to a part in the story where Elder Nelson shakes his hand and says, "Elder Winters...."  
My mouth drops open.  "You're last name is WINTERS?" I demand.  "Yeah," he answers, "why?"  "Uh," I backpeddle, "No reason." Then, turning to my friend sitting next to me I hiss, "I have to tell you something later!!"

Eventually Mark and I started dating, and when I told him about my pseudonym, he was quiet for a moment, before remarking, "So... you're changing you're name to Aubrey?"

After we got married, it was a no brainer that our first daughter would be named Aubree Winters.  The "ee" at the end came as a tribute to my dear friend Ashlee, who has many wonderful characteristics I hoped my daughter might emulate.

Finally, I learned that the name Aubree means "noble and bright."  I couldn't think of two words I'd rather use to describe her.
Aubree's middle name is Blue, which is my middle name as well.

Bryce:

Bryce got his name in a very Mark way.  First of all, Mark didn't want to discuss baby names until we knew if we were having a boy or a girl.  Once we found out our baby was a boy, Mark imposed a one week deadline for deciding on a name, and proposed the following procedure...

Without any discussion, both of us compiled a list of our top five favorite names.  On a designated day, we swapped lists and independently ranked all ten names from 1-10 (one being favorite, ten being least favorite).  Then Mark took the two ranked lists, assigned each ranking a point value, and tallied up which name received the best score.  

In this case two names tied: Bryce and Blake.  Blake was Mark's top choice, and though I like the name, I couldn't see my child with that name, so we agreed on Bryce (which had originally come from my list).

Bryce's middle name is Daniel, which is Mark's middle name as well.

Thane:

I wanted to name this cute boy Ezra, but Mark wasn't a big fan of that name.  Plus, it was kind of Mark's "turn" to name a baby.  He thought and thought and thought, then came to me with his top three options. He said, "I like Thane, Dane, and Lane."

How's that for variety!??

Of the three, Thane was my favorite, and then Mark agreed to let me have Ezra as his middle name; a beautiful compromise!

As a side note - Mark and I have a silly "rule" that our girls can't have a name that falls within the top 50 "Most Popular Baby Names" list, and our boys can't have a name that falls within the top 20 "Most Popular Baby Names."  With Thane we're pretty safe.  His name has never cracked the top 1000!

Graham:

Graham's name story makes me laugh.  About a six months before I even got pregnant with him, we were sitting at dinner and I told Mark, "I heard a boy's name today that I really liked."

Mark kind of rolled his eyes, and said "Go ahead and tell me," in a voice that strongly suggested, "but I already know I won't like it."

"Graham," I responded.

"Oh!" he said, sounding surprised.  "I like that name.  All right, if our next baby is a boy, his name is Graham."

"Wait!" I countered.  "I just said I liked it, not that I necessarily want to name our baby that name!"

"No," Mark answered practically, "We both like the name, so Graham it will be."

So, that time around, when we found out we were having another boy, the naming process was pretty easy.  Except, of course, for the middle name.  Nothing really jumped out at us, so we settled on David shortly after he was born.  Mostly because it's a strong, biblical name, but also because both Mark and I really admire Elder David R. Bednar.