Wednesday, October 14, 2009

31 for 21: Day 14 {The Name Game}

I was tagged by Cheri over at Raising Reid to talk about how my kids got their names. So here we go ...

Mason James ... When we found out we were having a boy, I made of list of names that I liked ... it looked something like this ... Kaden, Aiden, Mason, Camden, etc. There seemed to be a trend, in that I liked names that ended in -en, -an, -in or -on. We knew the middle name would be James, as that is Kyle's middle name and we wanted to stick with tradition.

For most of my pregnancy, we had decided on the name Kaden James. I loved the name Kaden, however by the end of my pregnancy I was bored with it, so we switched to Mason James. There was nothing really special about the meaning of it, we just simply loved the name. And so Mason James it was.

Payton Lynn ... When we found out we were having a girl, I wasn't really sure what to do, as I have always liked boys names better. Even as I went into labor, we weren't really sure what our little girl's name would be. I think we had narrowed it down to Mya and Payton ... me sort of pulling for Mya and Kyle pulling for Payton. I really wasn't sure though, since I tend to like those -on, -en, -in, -an names ... Mya didn't fit the bill on that one.

Kyle actually had made a bet with me that if Peyton Manning had broke some record that season, then our little girl would be named Payton. Ha. Peyton Manning did not break the record though ... too bad, so sad.

So fast forward to the birth of our daughter ... lo and behold, we find out she has Down syndrome. As we discussed her name, I told Kyle I wanted her to have a strong name. She was going to have to fight her whole life and she needed a strong name.

Payton it was. Payton Lynn. I had originally wanted our little girl to have my middle name, which is Ann. However I didn't like how Payton Ann sounded, so we gave her the middle name Lynn, which is the same middle name that my sister and Kyle's younger sister have.

Addison "Nika" Veronika ... From the time that we decided to adopt a little girl, I knew her name would be Addison. I loved the name and it went with my -on, -in, -en, -an name trend. Her birth name was Veronika, so we decided to keep that as her middle name ... with the same spelling.

It is no surprise that we pretty much call her "Nika" 99% of the time. When she was in the baby home, her caregivers and the other children called her "Nika", which is a shortened version of Veronika. And the name stuck. We continued to call her "Nika" after we brought her home, only because that is what she knew and we wanted her transition to go as smooth as possible. We still haven't really transitioned out of that name either ... while I think she knows her name is Addison, "Nika" is what we use when we really want her attention.

So there ya have it!
Get It Down; 31 for 21

2 comments:

  1. This was fun to read. Maddie would have been Kaden Michael, had she been a boy!

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  2. This cracked me up! Kaden was on our list, but I already had a nephew, Jaidyn and a godson, Haden. I could just imagine birthday parties with Jaidyn, Haden, and Kaden!

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