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My husband and I only agreed on 2 names for a girl - Grace and/or Lauren.   Before we went into labor we decided her name would be Grace Katherine, he wanted Katherine after his great grandmother.  I wasn't sold on Katherine but I agreed.  During my 14 hours of labor, I finally came clean and said I don't want Katherine as the middle name and he wasn't about to disagree :)  So, he kindly mentioned how about Grace Allison - Allison being my name....it seemed perfect and that is her name!

 

 

 We named our daughter Manwa. She was named after my late mother-in-law. Both my husband and I are Middle Eastern and it is tradition for the eldest son (my husband) to name his children after his parents.

Well that's a long story, so I'll try and make it short! My husband is italian so he really wanted italian names. Thus our journey begins! My first child, a boy, was named after my husband's father and my grand father. His name is Giovanni Dominic. My second child was a girl. We were undecided between 2 names. Unfortunatly his father passed away suddenly thus throwing me into preterm labor. When my daughter was born, 3 days after his father's death, we were still undecided on which name to give her. A nurse at the hospital was kind enought to bring us a copy of the obituary from the paper. On the back of it was an advertisment for a play, the name, Isabella. That was one of our two names. Thus my daughter is Isabella Athena (my middle name). My third child, a boy, Massimo (the greatest) Salvatore (saviour). My fourth and final, a boy, Amadeo (love of God) Cristiano (follower of Christ). My children will never be confused with anyone else that's for sure! :) 

For our first daughter my husband and I wanted a name that no one else had in the family at least at the moment of her birth and we have always been reluctant to name our kids after us so for the first one we went with Nicole because it wasn't too common at that time and for our second one we got it from a newspaper article and there was no Melanie in the family so it worked good.

I was tired of the same old recycled names Alex, Chris, Jose..So we thought long and hard names that carried substance. Ultimately we chose 'Lluvia and Sol', Rain and Sun. When we are asked and as often as that is our reply is"These are the most important elements in this world, these are life giving resources, without them there is no life. Like our children!

                                 Pachamama

                                      

My oldest daughter is named Alaina June.  I heard the name Alaina and just fell in love with it. The meaning and origin varies by spelling, but it is Irish and means precious and beautiful.  June is after my mom who passed away when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with Alaina - she never got to meet her first grand daughter, but got to feel her kick in my tummy before she passed.  My middle daugther is Abigail Grace.  I always loved the name Abby - I felt it was sweet, innocent and old fashioned.  Grace was from the song Amazing Grace.  Abby's due date was 9/11/01 - and although she didn't appear till 9/29 the song was heard a lot during that time and reminded us of the amazing grace of God.  My youngest daughter was named Marisa Joan.  We struggled for 3 days on a name at the hospital for her - and after convincing my 4 year old daughter Alaina that "Cinderella" and "Rainbow" were not going to be picked, my husband came up with Marisa and we all agreed as a family that we like the name.  Her middle name Joan is after her grandmother on my husband's side.

Our daughter's name is Braidy Elizabeth.  My husband picked it and I wasn't a fan of it at first because I never heard of the name for a girl before.  He really liked it so everyday for about 2 months he was say "You know what a good name is?  Braidy".  Slowly the name grew on me and I know I really love it.  I picked Elizabeth because I think the two names just flow very well.  Our son's name is Jack Timothy.  We both really liked Jack and always knew that we Jack would be the name if we had a boy.  Timothy is after my husband.

Congratulations to the following Chicago parent readers. They have won five tickets each to a special sneak preview of “Sing-a-long Little Mermaid” at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., Chicago, at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 22. Thanks to everyone who participated and best of luck in future contests.

mommy080911
Carolvanessa2001
Alex
pachamama

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Kate Pancero
Assistant Editor/Weekend E-dition Editor
FabMama columnist
Chicago Parent