Say my name, say my name

I just had to join in on this fun link-up! I’m names-obsessed.

My name? Rhonda Gail, clearly. My mom’s name is Rhonda Gaynell and she goes by her middle name. When naming me, my parents intended for my first and middle names to be said together (you know, like Mary Ann or Bobbi Jo). Most family still calls me by both and some of my closest friends do as well. I grew up hating my name (and the song “Help Me Rhonda”). It wasn’t trendy or exotic. If I couldn’t be Gabriella Anastasia (or hell, even Jessica), then what was the point of life? (I wasn’t dramatic. Ever.) I learned to love it, since few people share my name.

Onto my children…

My first-born’s biological father and I agreed on very little, including baby names. Nicholas was literally the only name we could agree on for a boy (had he been a girl, we chose Lillian Belle and would have called her LilyBelle). We disagreed on spelling (I wanted the Greek Nikolas, after Nikolas Cassadine on General Hospital. He wanted the Italian Nicolas), but went with the common American spelling as a means of compromise. When my baby daddy’s friend died shortly after we found out we were having a boy, he begged to have the guy’s name for the middle name. Grant was it. I love his name and feel like it’s a good, strong, dynamic name.

When my husband and I were expecting my middle child, we flipped through a huge book of baby names and each called out the ones we liked. We also knew that we wanted the name to have meaning. We wanted to name our child after our mutually favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird. We tossed around several combinations of Grey, Harper, Atticus before settling on chose Harper Grey for a girl and Harper Atticus for a boy. I rarely meet another boy Harper, but it seems like a popular name for girls now. Harper Lee was female herself, but I can not imagine my spunky middle child with any other name!

I hoped against all hope that our last child would miraculously be a girl. We knew before we started trying to conceive that her name would be Claudia Love after both our grandmothers. We had long lists of possibilities for boy names. In the end, Quentin Xavier was the only thing that felt right. It was perfect. I’m terribly sad about not being able to honor our grandmothers with such a beautiful girl name, but I can’t imagine my life without our Q!

(I also want to add that while I had no part in naming him, my stepson has a great name – Jude Malcolm )

Join the link-up at http://myveryownmodernfamily.blogspot.com/2013/02/whats-in-name-link-up.html. I can’t seem to put the button in for some reason!