Her Name {And Why We Chose It}

I have a big thing about baby names.  I have spent a ton of time coming up with and thinking about Luke’s name and now our daughter’s name as well.  It is super important to me that our kids’ names have a special meaning *and* if possible honor a family member or something else meaningful in our life.  Plus their full given name has to have a reasonable nickname that goes along with it – no one-syllable names for me, please!  I take my job as a namer very seriously – can you tell?!  lol

For instance, I used to LOVE the name Landon (A Walk to Remember, anyone? haha).  But then I got pregnant with Luke and realized in the baby name book that “Landon” means “Long hill.”  Womp womp.  lol  Totally killed the name for me!  (Still love it and think it’s a cool name – just couldn’t do it.  Plus what’s the nickname for Landon??)

ANYWAY, I have actually had my daughter’s name picked out since I was eleven years old (yup!).  Are you ready?  Her name will be…

 

Olivia Noelle

{and “Liv” or “Livi” for short}

Now BELIEVE me when I say that I know that Olivia is SUPER WICKEDLY popular right now…and has been for years.  I know, I know, I know – and it kinda makes me cringe.  But I’ve literally had her name picked out for over 15 years  – and I just seriously can’t imagine having a daughter *not* named Olivia.  No joke, my whole life I’ve thought about having an Olivia some day.  I just hope she doesn’t hate me when she’s in high school and has 10 other Olivias in her class. 

I actually fell in love with the name watching The Waltons reruns on tv! Anyone else love that show?!  Oh my goodness, totally wanted to live in that house with all of them!  I thought the mom, who they called Liv/Livi, was so beautiful and perfect and gracious in my 11-year-old mind.  :) I just totally fell in love with the name Olivia then. 

Then in high school (college?) when Lord of the Rings came out and Liv Tyler got talked about a lot, it was only confirmed how cute I thought the name was. 

Olivia is a sweet, girly, traditional name (and I am traditional all the way!).  I love that her name means “peace.” God knew how much I was longing for another child to add to our family – I just thought that child would come through adoption, not birth!  It’s been a long three years (will be three and half by the time she is born) since we first became parents.  She has already brought so much peace into my longing heart. 

Her middle name actually came from me!  Noelle is my middle name (well, it was before I got married, anyway).  Again, I love that it’s super feminine and traditional (unique and modern names are just not me – at all).  It means “Christmas” – my parents gave it to me because my birthday is December 7th.  Even though my girl will have a January birthday, it means so much that she’ll be getting her mama’s name. :)

Our prayer is that little Miss Livi will bring peace to others’ lives and reflect the beauty of Christ {and the meaning of Christmas} wherever she goes! 

I can’t wait to meet her!! :)