Silver Lining: baby girl's middle name

January 29, 2014

baby girl's middle name

The good news is our baby's last name is set in stone. That one's easy.

The middle name was also easy.

The first name is anybody's guess. We agree on nothing. Sam has an unusual given name, and has spent his whole life correcting people to just call him Sam. Consequently, he loves anything mainstream and traditional so our little girl won't have to correct everyone her whole life. I, on the other hand, don't want our baby to be one of seven Brittany's in her class growing up (true story: there were four Brittany's in my fourth grade class, and three in my sunday school class that year), so I lean towards slightly less traditional or popular names. Add that to my propensity for nineteenth-century names I find in literature and I swear we're going to be that couple who can't get discharged from the hospital because we can't pick a name for the birth certificate. At what point can I pull the I-just-birthed-a-child trump card and make Sam agree to whatever I want? :)

But anyway, back to our girl's middle name. In my family we have a tradition. My middle name is Janette. My mom's middle name is Janette. My grandma's middle name is Janette. It goes back a few more generations until it switches to a first name of Janette (thanks Aunt Grace for helping me with the details!). I come from a few generations of first daughters, and the tradition is to give the middle name Janette to your first daughter.

I love sharing that name with so many women who are special to me. I understand that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, etc etc, but I honestly have felt a connection to these amazing women because we share a name. It's something to live up to, a heritage I have. Also, since my amazing grandma and I are the only ones alive still with that middle name, it means even more to me.



^mom, my personal favorite Janette^

So here's to the next first daugher with the middle name Janette. She'll automatically have such a beautiful heritage and so many amazing Janettes to look up to.

Random PS: You might notice I'm back to my blogspot address for a bit. Google domain renewal is giving me the biggest headache. The old address will be back soon. Thanks for hanging with me in the meantime :)

9 comments:

  1. That is so sweet! Excited for baby ___ Janette :D

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    1. Yes, but I need serious help filling in the blank! HELP ME.

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    2. Schartzmugel is a good fit. Schartzmugel Janette Emery. I like it.

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  2. Travis and I have the hardest time with names. I like traditional (Thomas, Benjamin, Eleanor), or in his words, "the names of the founding fathers". He likes more popular trendy names like Brayden. You know, like the five Brayden's in my class. Ugh. Good news is, they mostly go with what you want after you've just given birth (although we did agree on both our kids' names).

    I love your middle name tradition. My mother and grandmothers second names are both jane (not middle, since they're from the south they have two first names). I always wanted to give it to my daughter but it just didn't fit with Elsie. Then I wanted to give her my middle name, lian, but that would make her initials elf, and I just couldn't. Maybe for my next.

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    1. I love all three of those founding father names :) Too bad my sister-in-law is Ellie, so we can't add another Eleanor to the family. I love Elsie's name. I hope we can find something as cute as that!

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  3. My family has the same tradition with the middle name Marie. I always hated it growing up because it's such a common middle name but now I cherish sharing something like that with those amazing woman!
    Also, I had an english teacher who was very young and handsome and he swore to the class he was going to name his first born Heathcliff!
    I'm so nervous to name future children because I have a hard enough time naming characters in my stories, and those are some of my favorite names so I can't name them after characters! Haha! I'm sure you'll find the perfect name, can't wait to hear what it is and see your sweet baby :)

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    1. Heathcliff? Haha! I'd like to think my names aren't quite that crazy. Oh man though, that's hilarious. Did he want his child to be a moody man with anger problems?

      Thanks for the comment :)

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