What's In a Name?

I though you might be interested in how the girls came by their names.

We trying to decide on names while I was pregnant, we decided that we would use our siblings names as middle names. When we found out we were having twins, we had to think harder, especially if we had same sex twins. First names were always a challenge.

After much discussing, internet searches, haggling and rejection, we settled on Abigail and Natalie as potential first names. There was nothing special about them, we just liked them. Abigail was our favorite and first choice. We actually waffled on Natalie quite a bit, mostly because it was more difficult to "cutify". In other words, it didn't have great nicknames. Nat is okay, but not as cute as Abby. But in the end, we decided we liked it (and we ran out of time to debate anything else!!!)

Their middle names are where the stories are. Kimberly is Jo's sister's name. It's also a beautiful name, and not too common now days. Mostly we wanted to honor our siblings. Elianna is the name of a special little friend of Johelen's who she started babysitting when Elianna was about 2 1/2. Actually, Kimberly started babysitting for her older brothers a few months before Elianna was even born. When Kimberly moved away, Jo began babysitting for the family. Elianna was Jo's flower girl at our wedding and has always been very special. We have had sleepovers, special time, and a few years ago we started a NC Fair tradition. Jo has attended school events, cheerleading competitions, ballet recitals, and birthday parties. In fact, Thursday night, Jo will attend Elianna's graduation from her elementary school. This November, she will be 11 years old! It has been nearly a decade of special time, events, and lots of love. We also thought Elianna was simply a beautiful name and very unusual. Elianna has been a dear about the babies. For years she would ask me when I was having a baby. She started giving me lists of potential names years ago. She was one of the first people I told I was pregnant, and she offered even more names - every time I spoke to her! She also started knitting a hat for the baby. She even purchased a gift for them with her very own money - adorable socks that are made to look like Mary Jane shoes. She is such a sweetheart and has brought so much joy and happiness to me. We are honored to have one of the girls share her name.

The combination of the names was mostly a matter of what sounded best together. Natalie Kimberly was chosen as the name for whoever came out first (to honor Sister). Abigail Elianna would be her sister.

So - that's the story of how the girls got their names. Now you know...