TTA - What's in a name?

This could get really long, but I'll just start and see where it takes me!

Kara Jayne:

I am the youngest of six kids. My parents have told me that when I was born my Dad was really wanting to name me Kara. With the first five my Mom mostly got her way, but he felt like this time he wanted what he wanted. Since my Mom had to coerce and cajole my Dad for kid numbers 5 & 6 I think she felt like it was the least she could do. Apparently my Dad had a cousin who married a girl named Kara and my Dad really liked it. My Mom suggested the middle name Jayne and really wanted it spelled with a "Y". I'm so glad she did. I think it looks so nice and is just a little different. I considered naming each of my girls Jayne as a first name.

I have always loved having a middle name and still go by it in many circles. There are a few people in my life who have never called me anything but Kara Jayne...and I love it!

Quick funny note about my name. When my parents brought me home and all my siblings were there to meet their new baby sister, they asked what my name was. When my parents said, "Kara Jayne" they all twisted their faces in confusion. They couldn't say it or understand why it wasn't easier like Karen, or Kari. I think they even exclaimed, "why would you name such a cute baby such an ugly name?" Funny thing is that now they all claim it is one of their favorites. Isn't that how it goes with names? It's more about the person than the actual name.

Ella Elizabeth:

I'm using these old pictures of the kids because they are just so cute! This is Ella just after she turned 5.

Ever since I was in High School I wanted to name a daughter after my Grandmother. Her name was Ella May. Paul and I were married for 5 years before we had children and in that time I had learned a few things about Paul. I knew that if I came right out with the fact that I wanted to name our baby Ella, then I would most likely be met with strong resistance. I causally mentioned it a few times and lucky for me it stuck. I think it had to grow on him, but he now admits to loving it.

I really wanted to name her Ella Mae, but I think that was a bit much for him. I'm sure it didn't help that we were living in Kentucky at the time and he thought it sounded too "southern" for his taste.

I've always love the elegance of the name Elizabeth. One of my dearest friends of all time is named Elizabeth and it seemed the right choice. Paul's grandmother was also named Elizabeth. Sometimes I do wish I could change it to Mae because Ella Elizabeth is a bit of a tongue twister...I may have still had the traces of the pain killer in my system. We sure LOVE our girl, and LOVE her name.

John McMillan "Jack":

In this picture Jack had just turned 3.

I wish I could blame this one on pain killers, but I only took one pain killer with Ella and none with any of my other deliveries. Our dear Jack isn't named Jack at all. I really wanted to name him Jack, but I really wanted all of my kids to have one of their names to be a family name. Paul's middle name is John and Jack is a popular nickname for John. (John F. Kennedy, being the most famous - his family all called him Jack) So we decided on John for the first name and we would call him Jack.

Then when it came to the middle name we thought of Stuart which is my Dad's name. But to be honest I didn't really want to use it up in case I had two more boys. I would have loved it as a first name. So, we decided to use McMillan which is his grandfather's last name. Paul and his grandpa were really close and he had two daughters. The name McMillan was going to die with him and we really wanted to carry it on. So, Jack is named after both his Dad and his Grandpa. Sometimes I wish we had just named him Jack and been done with it, but this way he is named after his Dad. I'm curious to know your thoughts about the John/Jack thing. If you Google it there is a lot of info on it.

Maxwell Paul:

Max was just 15 months in this picture.

Max was easy to name. I've always loved the name Max and it seemed to go well with our short and sweet pattern. Paul really liked short strong names for the boys. We settled on Maxwell as the full name pretty quickly after only slightly considering alternatives like Maxmilian, Maximus, and just plain Max. Of course we had to use Paul with one of our boys and it flowed so well with Maxwell. I love that both of my boys are named after their Dad.

Nora Jayne:

Here is my Nora Jayne at about 5 months old.

Nora wasn't named right away. We had a whole list of names that included Kate, Lucy, Jayne, Maggie, Meg, Layne, etc. If Max was a girl he was going to be Kate. He wasn't, and then Paul's sister (one of my best friends) had a daughter and named her Kate. Not wanting to step on toes or ruffle any feathers Paul felt pretty strongly that we shouldn't use the name. To be honest I was heartbroken and really wanted to use it. She would've been either Mary Kate (call her Kate) or Katie Jayne. Once I resigned myself to the fact that I would never have a Kate I really struggled. I was SO CLOSE to naming her Jayne, but to be honest it is such a hard name to put a middle name with. I know a lot of girls like not having middle names, but I loved having one so much that I wanted to give that to my girls.

Ella had the cutest little friend in Wisconsin that was named Nora. It just fit so perfectly with our classic (or as I like to call them "grandma and grandpa") names. That is how Nora Jayne was chosen. I must admit that I LOVE LOVE LOVE her name. I rarely call her just Nora. She will probably end up like me with her family always calling her Nora Jayne. Obviously the middle name came from me.

I love the names of my kids even if they are fairly common. I love that they are classy, and that people don't get confused. I actually like not so common names too. I went through a stage in college when I thought I wanted all my kids to have really unique names. At the time I thought Ella would be one of those!

So, there you have it! Probably more detail than you care about, but good for family history purposes.