We chose Raelyn's name on the way to visit family on Christmas Eve (we had just learned we were having a girl and I was putting Mounds candy bars in gift bags to give to everyone to share the news). There were several names we liked for a girl but we just hadn't found the perfect one (partially because we had our boy name nailed down and I thought we were probably going to have a boy). So, how did we come up with her name?
When Kip and I first started dating we used to talk about what we would name kids one day. My mom and I took a trip to the beach I think and we were talking about baby names (that's what girls do...daydream about the future and name their unborn children long before they are ready to actually have kids). The names I liked have changed so much through the years. On the trip, mom and I wrote down some ideas and one of them was Raegan. I came back home and Kip said he had thought of a name we could name a girl one day and guess what...it was Raegan! 8 years later, I realized Raegan was a pretty popular name and decided it wasn't my favorite. Kip still liked it better than the other names I liked.
We knew we wanted Jean as the middle name in honor of Kip's mom, Barbara Jean. I wanted to try to get Lynn in the name because that is my dad's name. I had always liked Rae as a middle name or some part of the name. On our car ride to Giles County I told Kip instead of Raegan maybe we could do Raelyn (there was a girl on The Voice names Rae-Lynn a couple of years ago and the main character of one of our favorite shows, Justified, is Raylan). I kept throwing out ideas and he said he had made his decision and knew what he liked but he wouldn't tell me. About a week later we were at Applebee's I told him that I liked the name Raelyn Jean the best (I had been writing all of the names down and typing them in different fonts to see what I liked) and he said that was also the name her liked. So, we had a name for our baby girl...Raelyn Jean Good.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am pretty open and keeping things private is not one of the easiest things for me to do. I told Cassidy the name but decided to keep it a secret from everyone else. I know plenty of people who have waited until the birth to share the name but you would have thought we were the first people to ever do this. Everyone kept asking what the name was! Kip wouldn't even tell a guy at the golf course who asked...it was our secret! I finally told the doctor the morning we went in the hospital but told her if she was delivering the baby she couldn't say her name because my mom didn't know. All mom knew was that the name had 6 letters and one of those was an E (I had put 3M strips on the wall to hang her name and needed mom's opinion about which style of letters to buy so I showed her the E because it was in all of the names we liked).
Finally, when she was born the secret was out...welcome to the world Raelyn Jean! (Pronounced RAY-lin not ray-LYNN)
No comments:
Post a Comment