What's in a name?

As most of you know, we have decided to name our little princess...

or "Addie" for short.

This is kind of a random name so I just want to explain where it came from. It's kind of fun.

Ray has always wanted to name his little girl Adelaide. Why? You ask.

Well, his favorite band, Anberlin, sings a song called Adelaide. 

He loves the song and has always loved the name.

My mom fell in love with the name as well.

I, on the other hand, took some convincing. For several reasons...

(1) I thought it sounded like Lemonade.

(2) I LOVE boy names for girls... maybe it is because I have a boy name, who knows, but Ray was absolutely not having that.

(3) Adelaide is a long name and so most people will know her as Addie. My full name being Danielle, but most people knowing me as Dani was kind of annoying at times. Like, for instance, every year on the first day of school when the teacher does roll call and your name is called, instead of just saying here,  you have to interrupt the teacher to tell them your prefer to go by Dani/Addie. Kind of lame, I know. But  that's how I felt.

(4) Addie is an EXTREMELY popular name right now. I'm afraid she will be one of like 15 Addie's in her grade. Just like I went to school with like 15 different Ashlee/Ashley's. (I'm not dissing on the name Ashlee/Ashley. I will redeem myself later.)

So how did I come to love the name? You are probably thinking that Ray and my mom ganged up on me and forced me to like the name. But that's not the case... well, maybe it kind of was. Ok, totally kidding. Here is what really happened....

(1) We were bringing our cows off of the mountain when we ran into a little white toyota corolla driving down the road. Well, if any of you have ever been to our cabin you know it is not the place for little cars. We are basically at the end of the road--a long, bumpy road at that. Come to find out, the girl driving the little white corolla was BEYOND lost and almost out of gas. When we stopped to talk to her she burst into tears... the poor thing. So we took her under our wing. She had the cutest little accent and when we asked her where she was from she told us Adelaide, Australia. My mom and Ray were convinced it was a sign. But if that wasn't enough.... when I explained that my husband wanted to name our little girl Adelaide because his favorite band sings a song.. yada, yada, yada. She said oh yeah, its Anberlin, they are my favorite band too.

It was fate.

(2) The more I looked for names, the more Adelaide kept popping into my head. So I looked into it and found some interesting facts:

• The meaning of Adelaide is "noble kind". 
• The name was imported to England by Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, later Queen Adelaide, the wife of William IV of Great Britain. The city Adelaide in Australia was named after her. 
• In contemporary literature of the time, Adelaide was frequently used as a name for upper-class, elegant women.
• St Adelaide of Italy lived in the tenth century. She was heir to the throne of Italy and married Otto the Great, Holy Roman Emperor. She was made a saint on account of her good deeds towards the poor.
• Adelaide of Aquitaine was the wife of French king Hugh Capet, the founder of the Capetian dynasty.

Needless to say, the name Adelaide started to seem much more elegant and much less like Lemonade.

(3) Our family friend named Ashlee (who's name was very common growing up) said she still loved her name because A names are so pretty to write (I totally agree with her there). This made me realize that if she can have a common name and still love it, then so can Addie. Plus, every single Ashlee/Ashley that I know turned out just fine even with a common name. Actually they turned out more than fine. I love them all to death. 

And the icing on the cake...

(4) One night I had a dream where we named her Adelaide/Addie, and it just sort of stuck.

I love the name now, and am so excited for our very own Princess Adelaide to get here!