What's In a Name

In all the excitement and settling in, I have failed to tell the story of how Cecilia got her name. So I thought I would take the time today to share.

As many of you know it was a complete struggle for Brent and I to come up with a girl's name. The minute we found out we were pregnant we started thinking of names. We had a boy's name within hours but could never think of a girl's name that both of us liked or that I didn't already know someone with that name.

When we found out that we were having a girl, it was on. We searched the internet for names, went to Barnes and Noble and sat there for hours going through baby name books and I even started watching the credits of tv shows and movies to see if I saw a name I liked. I was wanting a family name but neither one of us could think too far past our grandparents to come up with a good name. Everyday we would call and text each other names we liked but we could never agree. Or if we did a few days later one of us would come back and decide we no longer liked that name. It was exhausting to say the least. Brent was at his wits end with me because he would really like a name but I would have to shoot it down because I knew someone with that name. He found it pretty ridiculous that I wouldn't name my child a certain name because someone I knew brother's wife's cousin named their child that. (it wasn't that bad but close!)

Anyway, a few weeks before Christmas I was doing a search on the internet for baby names yet again. I was determined to name this child by the end of January. There were certain letters we liked better than others, so I started re-looking at all the names again. That's when I came across Cecilia. I liked it pretty well and I knew no one with that name. SCORE! I threw it out there to Brent and we decided if we didn't find anything better then that is the name we were going to stick with.

I was at my Granny's celebrating Christmas and I started looking through a family tree book my dad had made. He was sitting next to me and asked if I saw any names that liked. No sooner had he gotten the last word out did my eyes fall on the name Cecilia! I let out a nervous laugh and said 'yeah Mammie.' (that is an actual family members name). I couldn't believe that Cecilia was a family name and I had no idea. It was my great great great grandmother's name. I texted Brent the news and we decided to keep the name. Sweet! We had a first name; now for the middle name.

Again we went back and forth with names. Brent wanted her to have initials that could be the name we called her like CJ. Well that just wasn't working because we could find nothing that went well with Cecilia. We almost changed her first name because we were having such a hard time finding a middle name.

A few weeks before I was due, my great Aunt Annie Reid died. She was my favorite great aunt, if that is possible to have a favorite, and I have always loved her name. When I was younger I wanted to name my child after her but someone I went to church with snagged that name before I had a chance to. What are the odds huh? She was a wonderful person and after her passing I knew I had to use her name somehow. Even though I knew a few people with the middle name Reid I decided I could live with it and wanted that to be Cecilia's middle name.

I have been a little nervous about her name ever since we finalized it because I knew our families were more excited about the name than they were about seeing what she looked like. I was scared we made too big of a deal about the name and it would only be a let down. We really didn't care about what others thought of it but I also didn't want our families to think it was the worst name in the world. Luckily everyone seemed to like it and we of course are in LOVE with the name now that we have a face to go with it!

So that is the story of how Cecilia got her name!