What is in a name???

Hmmmm, so, I read the magazine "People" online...
today, I read a celebrity blog about a celebrity who named her son "Sundance" and in the blog she explained why she named her son that name. Mainly because it was a name that had meaning to her husband and herself.
I then read several of the comments on that blog...man are people opinionated about what people name their kids!!!!

Some felt that she had done a disservice to her son, others, liked the name, and lots complained about how much they got teased due to their own names.

I have to say that in my family my kids have the most "unique" names out of the 12 (almost 13) grandkids. But I also grew up in a family with kids with unusual names...plus we all had the same initials
*Tanya Layne (pronounced Tonya)
*Tamra Lynne
*Todd Lewis
*Tasha Leigh

I was never teased about my name and in all truth I LOVE my name, I love how different it is and how it makes me feel kinda special :-)

I don't really think my siblings were teased about their names either but I could be wrong.

Now, I do have to remind people how to spell my name and how to pronounce it...but at work people usually pronounce it right...plus, if they call me T(aa)nya I correct them and let them know I won't respond to that name again :-) There are people at work that have NEVER spelled my name correctly...but if they can pronounce it the right way I don't worry about it.

My parents also told me that they almost legally changed the spelling of my name to Tawnya due to the Patty Hearst (Tania) news story going around when I was born. Thankfully, they didn't do that :-)

Now, my kids names. I've been coming up with names for my kids since I was about 12 or 13. My kids are not named any of those names I came up with. A few I remember are "Kelsi Myne" and "Kensi Mayn" Yeah, I wanted twins. Another one was Dennyelle and there were many, many more!!!!

Adreyn Mikailah (A-dree-in Mi-Kay-lah)--my oldest
When we found out we were pregnant with Adreyn we picked out this name: Cecylia Frances. This name was picked for Jason's grandmother Cecyle and my grandmother Wanda Frances. But while I was pregnant the name just didn't seem to fit the baby I was carrying (I know, it sounds stupid, but that's the truth). We then decided on the name Meaghan Samantha. Once again after another month or so that name didn't fit either. I don't really remember when her name came to me but I had always liked the name Adrienne but I wanted it to look prettier somehow so I came up with Adreyn. Her middle name came about because we needed something that sounded good with Adreyn. I liked the name Michaela (like Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman) but didn't like the way it looked and I felt that MiKayla and other spellings weren't right. So after thinking about it I thought of the Russian name "Mikail" (Tanya is russian so I liked the connection) and just added an AH and came up with Mikailah. It just flowed together...Adreyn Mikailah...and it works well with our last name. We never decided on a boy name and had decided that if the ultrasound was wrong and she was a boy that we would name him Adrian Michael. I'm so glad she was a girl (I don't like the name Adrian for a boy!!!!)
Oh, and no one mispronounces her first name (It's phonetically correct...well mostly) except for her grandfather who called her Andrea for the first year. My dad figured out the spiritual meaning of her name and it means "God's Creative Gift"

Oh, and her nickname: "A" (short and sweet, huh)


Tristan Kreig (Trist-in Kray-g) Our little man
I was positive we were having another girl (until 18 weeks when we saw the proof on ultrasound) so Tristan's name was gonna be Shannyn Mallery (or Tannyn Mallery). Tristan was the only boy's name that Jason and I could agree on so really all we had to agree on was spelling. I considered Tristyn but decided it looked to girly. We also briefly considered Triston (boring) and Tristen (knew someone with that spelling) but ultimately decided on the usual spelling. Usually once someone sees his name they pronounce it correctly. However, if they just hear it he is usually called Christian until we correct them. His school crossing guard (this is his 3rd year to see her) calls him Chris...We've corrected her but she still calls him Chris...it's actually kind of funny now. At the pediatricians office they decided to spell his name Tristian (not even a spelling we considered LOL). Kreig...well, it sounded good with Tristan but I HATED it spelled Craig! And I really didn't like Kraig (looks KGBish or something) so went with Kreig because I like different spellings and I liked the way it looks. So at about 19 weeks Tristan Kreig had his name. The spiritual meaning of his name is "God's Loyal Messenger"

Oh, and his nickname: "T" (once again short and sweet)


Rehanyn Noelle (Ree-ann-in No-elle) Our baby girl
We were not expecting Rehanyn...she is our surprise baby. By the time we knew we were pregnant with her I no longer liked the name Shannyn Mallery (and I had planned to use it if we had another baby). So we thought about Shannyn Mallery and decided against it. The names we picked for her (before we knew if she was a girl) were Rehanyn Mallery and Graeden Trace...unique I know (my family gave me crazy looks for these :-) ) So we found out she was a girl and decided on Rehanyn for sure and then changed the middle one to Noelle...just because I liked the way they sounded together. Rhiannon is a Gaelic name that I had read in several books and always liked...but I figured that if Adreyn was spelled differently I needed to spell Rhiannon differently too. I decided on Rheanyn and asked Jason what he thought...he liked it spelled Rehanyn better and that's how we decided on that spelling. It has completely confused people though!!! The "h" is silent but too many people want to say the "h". My dad called her Reh-anyn for the first 9 months or so...why? because that's how it's spelled LOL. My grandmother called her Breanna all the time (even when we corrected her she would still call her Breanna). The pediatrician's office calls her Rayann or Rayanna. She is pretty good about it though. She corrects people "It's Reh-an-yn!!!!" What has really tickled us is that when she started Kindergarten she decided to tell people that her name is Noelle and some actually called her Noelle and totally confused her teacher. Her Kindergarten teacher called her Ray though and Rehanyn answered to Ray all year...crazy!!!! The spiritual meaning of her name is "God's Gracious Gift"

Her nickname: "Ree" (NOT Ray!!!!) LOL


Oh, by the way...before we decided 3 was enough for us...if we had another baby boy his name would be Graeden Trace...I still LOVE that name!!!!!


So, I don't really have anything to say about what other people name their kids...but I'm not about to be naming my kids Sundance, Apple, Moses, Pilot Inspektor, or anything else like that :-) I always say that my kids have mostly common names just spelled a bit different :-)