Ever since I started blogging I had chosen not to use my kid’s names. It was fun using their nicknames, but lately as their nicknames have been used less often in real life, it doesn’t feel as fun. I had been contemplating for awhile now on whether to switch to their names or continue using the nicknames, or something else [I have seen some blogs use initials]. But, I finally made my decision to go ahead and share their names -with a little inspiration from my sister in law’s blog.
Before we even got married, we started discussing names for our future children. We weren’t actually trying, but knew that once we were married we weren’t going to prevent it from happening. It’s one of those exciting relationship conversations, I think. Anyway, I had always thought I would have a son first. My husband, Chris, likes more common names and I like more unique ones. I had landed on the name Wyatt. I don’t know where I got it from, but I had mentioned it to Chris. He was sort of “meh” about it and responded with, “what about Wylan?” Immediately it just felt so right and I said yes that is the one! A year and a half after we got married we welcomed Wylan into the world. He is 8 years old now!
During our infertility struggle after having Wylan, I began ruminating with names again. I had a name I loved since we decided on Wylan’s name, but it just didn’t feel like the one. I wound up journaling about a girl’s name that I absolutely loved. I drew it out like a decor piece that would hang above her crib one day. When we finally got pregnant and found out we were expecting a girl, we just knew that her name would be the one I had been dreaming of. Isla. [Pronounced eye-luh]. She is currently 4!
Our 3rd child, was a surprise and a half and we didn’t have any plans for names beforehand. I was really struggling to feel connected to a nameless person and pushed to get a name figured out. Chris was going through a list of names and landed on the name Harris. I immediately loved the name. But put together with the middle and last name that was already set in stone, it just didn’t flow. We wound up deciding we needed to enlongate the name so that it flowed and we would use Harris more than the enlongated version. We landed on Harrison. Funny story though, he has forever been Harrison, we do not feel like Harris fits him and have never used it. He is now 2 years old!
And there you have it! I am excited to make the change within my blog. The 2 youngest kids still have nicknames that we use sometimes, Monkey and Bubba/Bubby/Bub/booboo 😅 but I figured it is easier to keep up with one name per kid.
-jenn
Reclaiming My Sanity 