oh, that is a legitimate concern. We actually didn’t find out her gender until she arrived and we both sorta thought our boy name choice was lame. We were glad we got to use the more interesting name choice! So, hopefully we’ll come up with something interesting before the next one arrives.

Best name story yet! How will you top it if you have another child?

Her middle name May came because my husband and I have lucky Mays. We met in May, we got our new long-awaited assignment in May, we lived on a street named ‘Lucky Mays’ and we just decided that May was a good month for us.

so, she’s Maggie May. And mostly my husband came up with it.

Her middle name is a Korean name that I asked my parents to pick out. This way she’s got ties to both her American and Korean roots.

And then there’s my daughter: Meike. No one has ever heard that name and people think she’s a boy: Micah. I saw it in a German movie and fell in love with it. When I got pregnant, there was never any other option for names, it was always Meike Teresa (after my grandmother, Maria Teresa). I looked it up and thought it was a German form of Michelle, which is also my favorite women’s soccer player (Michelle Akers). It turns out, it’s a short form of Mary, so she is completely named after my grandmother.

My MIL seemed frustrated that I was not caving in to the lobbying and pressure that she caved into 30-odd years ago.

His middle names, Marius, is my grandfather’s middle and was his father’s middle name and his grandfather’s first name. It goes even further back than that in our family. I knew I wanted to represent my family through his middle name, and this was the one that worked the best.

We had a list of 3 names picked out, and decided for sure on his on our way to the hospital. And when he was born, Axton Marius just fit perfectly!

Now there is a meaningful part for her middle name, Anne. Both my mom’s my own middle names are Anne and my sister’s first name is Anne. So that was a nice connection to keep. I’m not sure if we’ll try to incorporate Anne (or some version) into any future daughter’s names or not.

We liked the name enough on its own to go with it, but finding the serendipitous family connection sealed the deal.
What’s been interesting in the months since her birth is seeing the reactions of people when we explain the origin of her name. If we say “we picked it because we liked it” we get a much cooler reception that when we say “it’s her great-great-grandmother’s name.” But actually, both are true.

His middle names, however, hold meaning. James is the name of both my grandfathers, and is a family name on my husband’s side, as well. And Edward is the name of a character in the play “You Can’t Take it With You.” My husband and I met while doing this play, and he was Ed. I was Alice

(This is a great topic, by the way. I love hearing these name stories!)