A Rose By Any Other Name

We got our first run at naming when we got Kaiser. We made a list of possibilities and over Mexican food and margaritas we narrowed it to 3 options. Within a couple of days we had decided and Kai's name is one we both liked a lot. Seemed easy enough.

Shortly thereafter, Tim & I starting accumulating another list of names - this time for the child we hoped to have soon. Because our reproductive process took so long, our list was added to and purged from for a year and a half. When we were not together, we would text each other ideas and commentary. Those that we both liked were added to the ongoing list.

I am frequently asked how we came up with the kids' names.

"Ayla" made it's way onto the list early. Ayla is the name of a nurse at our old vet's office. I saw it on her name tag and asked her about it. She loved her name, as did Tim and I... it stayed st the top of the list. Of course, once we knew we were having twins, we had to make sure we had 2 girl names and 2 boy names ready to go. Innitially, Ayla's middle name was to be Angeline, a combination of my mom's name (Anne) and my Aunt's name (Eileen). Our second girl name was "Ruby". Because Tim's parents often give everyone the joking middle name James, we talked about her middle name being a slightly more feminine version: "Jaymes".

An early addition to the boy's name list was "Rhett", chosen by me after a singer I like, Rhett Miller, and also because my mom dreamed while she was pregnant with me that she was having twin boys. One was to be named Barret and called Rhett.

Early in the pregnancy, we knew we were expecting twins. I began searching for a blog written by a mom of twins to read. I guess I just wanted confirmation that it could be done! I stumbled on Jodi's blog during my google search, enjoyed her writing and never looked back. She often talks highly of her wonderful husband, Anson... that's how his name bumped Rhett into the 2nd position.

We had planned to use just an innitial as the boy's middle name: "J.".  We didn't have a contingency plan for middle names if it were 2 boys. We always blindly assumed it was a girl and a boy.

I added Tim's name, "Timothy" as an executive decision knowing that Tim would be honored to have his son carry it as his middle name. There was no doubt that Ayla was "Ayla James", using her daddy's middle name as her own. She is feminine enough without altering the spelling to girly it up.

I'm so proud to call Tim my husband and so proud that our kids can carry his name with them throughout their long, healthy lives.

Names that made the list, but didn't make the cut:
Drake
Leah
Beau
Rhett
Vance
Donovan
Stella
Katherine
Ruby
Evan