What's in a name? (part one)

Seeing as I am the cliche'd mother who hasn't written in her kids baby books since the 2nd one was born, I am looking at this blog as an opportunity to document thoughts and information for my kids to read when they are older, and as a bonus, you get to know me and my kids a little better...I thought I'd describe in detail how each of their names were chosen:

Evie Jill

As a little girl in the 70's I lived a musically sheltered life consisting of christian music and Kenny Rogers. Pioneering christian contemporary singer, Evie, was a young, blond haired cutie and my mom had all her records and played them daily. I loved her and just knew at my young age that when I grew up I was going to have a daughter named Evie.

Fast forward to 1998 when I am pregnant with our first child and find out it will be a girl. I tell CJ I love the name Evie and that is what I want to name her. He doesn't get it. He insists on making a list of possibilities that we will ponder. I indulge him secretly having no intention of naming her anything else. Somewhere in the 7th month of pregnancy, I realized he was serious about pondering other names and I had a hormonal breakdown as us pregnant women are prone to do and started crying, describing my love for singing Evie in the 70's and my little girl dreams of having a daughter named after her. What man can deny a hugely pregnant, borderline insane, first time mother-to-be? Thats right. He caved.

Evie it was. No, not Evelyn. Just Evie. Evie was the name I wanted her to be, so why make it longer or more formal? That was a hard concept for some people to accept. :)

Jill was always going to be the middle name of my first born daughter. As a matter of fact, if not for the childhood dream of an Evie, my first daughter would have been named Jill as her first name. Jill was/is my surrogate mother/sister/aunt, mentor, confidant, counselor, best friend, validating, encouraging, supportive, inspiring, soul sister and God-given gift to me when I was 5 years old and my family moved next door to her precious 25 year old self and her husband in 1978 which resulted in 27 years as neighbors.

I kept the middle name to myself and surprised Jill with Evie Jill's name on the day of her birth. Jill is now Evie Jill's fairy godmother; loving, praying, ever supportive of my girl and me as her mom.

I had the good fortune of meeting the original Evie a couple years ago...what a treat! I got teary when I spoke with her. I got to tell her about naming my Evie after her and she wrote a note to my Evie on the back of her school picture that I had brought along, and signed an old record album that I had and brought along. She was adorable and I sat front and center singing along while she sang and soaked up every minute of it!

And here is the original Jill with my
Evie Jill. I love her. What's even better, she loves me...and my girl. :)