How my Girls Got Their Names

So Amy's teacher is pregnant and recently found out she will be having a baby boy. She told me they were having a hard time coming up with a name and were taking any and all names under consideration. So I emailed her back with a list of all the boy names I never got to use. It was fun thinking back to how each of my darling daughters ended up with the name they bear. So I thought I'd share the stories here:

Audrey would have been an Alan, an Adam, or an Andrew. Her middle name would have been James. It's a good thing Amy was a girl because even though I was induced and we knew the baby was coming THAT DAY we still hadn't settled on a boy name! James was still the front runner for a middle name but Alan and Andrew were out as first names. I just decided I didn't like Alan anymore and a close friend was due around the same time and was going to name her son Andrew. However, Adam, Aaron, Matthew, Thomas, and Nathan were on the list. I was LITERALLY polling each and every nurse that came by to check on me that morning. Allison would have been Austin. With either James or Bennet for a middle name. I always liked Tyler, Caleb, Colton and Dillon for boy first names but never could get David to go for any of those.

Picking a name was always so hard for me. Amy was actually the easiest. For some reason we both really liked Amy, which means "loved", for a girl name and we were pretty set on it. But with Audrey and Allison I went in to labor still stuck between two names. The other name choice for Audrey was Avery but Avery means "elf advisor" in some of the books and when she got stuck and ended up being delivered with forceps and came out with the head and shoulders of a linebacker, I knew she as an Audrey (nobility and strength). However, she was Audrey Carolyn for about 36 hours and then we changed it to Audrey Jean. Allison was almost Andrea (womanly) but she just looked more like an Allison (noble) to me. And then she had no middle name for 3 days until I finally decided on Grace. I had a rough night with a nazi nurse and I was really wanting my mother. I looked up her name, Nancy, in my baby name book and saw that it means Grace. Then and there I decided Allison's middle name would be Grace.

The girls' middle names are all tied to their Grandmothers. Audrey's is Jean which is also David's mom's middle name. Amy's is Lynn which is my middle name and my mother's middle name and then there's Allison Grace. Their first names come from a variety of places. Audrey is also the name of my BFF. We have been friends since the 5th grade and still get together when we can. Amy is the name David's brother would have had if he had been a girl. And Allison was the name of one of my first graders at Kirby Hall. Allison is also a form of Alice which, according to my baby name book, comes from Adelaide. I know there was an "Aunt Alice" on my mom's side and I think there might have been an Adelaide as well.

So there you have it - a brief history of the girls' names.

Oh - and the "A" thing? That would be my husband's input. I don't mind it, I could take it or leave it, but he really wanted to stick with the "A" names, so we did.