What's In A Name? ~ Blog Hop

This is my 80th post! Wow, I never thought I would have this much to say. 80 posts in just under 3 months.

Realizing that this was kind of a milestone, I decided I wanted to do something special for this post. What to do?

I decided I wanted to talk about the meaning of our daughter's names and how and why we chose the names we did. And make it into a blog hop.

Madalyn Joy
With our first we did not find out if she was a girl or boy. We waited until she was born to find out, and because of this we had to come up with boys and girls names. I will spare you all the boys names we came up with, but as far as girls names, well that is another story.

We liked, Payton, Calliegh, Nicole and Madalyn. But just like the list Madalyn was our last choice, our least favorite name to begin with. I am so glad we had choices. When Maddie was born, she just looked like a Madalyn. There is no other way to explain it. So that is what we named her.
But her name was more than just a random choice once she was born. We had carefully selected each name. I truly believe that a name shapes who a person is for their entire life. Yes, someone can overcome a name, but generally speaking it shapes who you are.
Madalyn means "from the tower" and her middle name Joy means, well, "joy." If you put those two together she name means "From the tower of Joy." This is what she has been to us from the day we found out we were pregnant.

Emily Fatih
When we found out we were pregnant a second time we decided from the beginning that we were going to find out what we were having. It just made sense, and I really wanted to be preparing Maddie for a brother or sister.

Once we found out we were having a girl we started again on trying to select the perfect name. We tossed around Payton, Nicole, Gretchen, Addison, and Abigail, but never once did the name Emily come up until the night before she was born.
The moment I heard what Emily meant I knew that was going to be our little girl's name. Emily means to "strive or excel." I felt like our baby girl deserved a name that fit her personality from the beginning. Emily Faith means to "strive or excel in Faith." I believe that there was no better name for her. She surpassed what the doctors every thought possible.

I believe the names we give our children are gifts that they carry with them for the rest of their lives.


How about you? How did you choose your child(ren)'s name? What is the meaning of the your child(ren)'s name? Please share and link up here with me.