Show and Tell Tuesdays: Baby Names

Today I'm linking up with Andrea from Momfessionals for Show and Tell Tuesdays. She hosts this link up with different prompts every other Tuesday throughout this year!

Tell us how you picked your kids' names (or how you got yours!)

Naming children is a little tricky for me. I have this policy that (unless they're named after someone...) we cannot know anyone else by that same name. As you can imagine that's a little hard and even more difficult because I taught daycare for a long time and had lots of little girls and little boys with a variety of names come through my classes! 

When we named Cora, I pretty much let John pick the name and I exercised my veto power! Her name is Coralie Elizabeth. Elizabeth is for my mom, I told him I wanted to name our first daughter after my mother (who passed away several years ago) and that I didn't care if it was her first name or middle name. John came up with Coralie all on his own, he presented me with several ideas, I tossed in a few ideas but in the end this is what we decided on (and he picked it)! It took me a long time to decide I was for-sure okay with the name, we had weeks and weeks of practicing the name out at home when I talked about the baby. I was worried that she would be born and I wouldn't be able to see my baby as a "Coralie" but I really feel like the name fits her well! Once I let him know that I was happy with the name and that we could go ahead and make her name art we hired a girl in our office named Cora Leigh. I'd literally never met a Cora much less a Cora Leigh before and here was one in the flesh and blood! By this time I had poured hours into making her string art name decoration and John was very attached to the name so I got over it! Fortunately I like work Cora and she's a sweet girl so there isn't any negative imagery with the name for me.

For Baby Girl #2, we aren't announcing her name until she is born. Or at least that is the plan as of now. The naming process was very much the same though! I provided a couple of family names I wanted John to consider, we agreed on one without a doubt and then it was just a matter of picking a middle name. In very similar fashion, he picked the middle name and after several weeks of practicing the name (hashing out spelling) and trying it out I agreed it felt right!

One day down the road if the Lord blesses us with a boy, his name is a given! John Benjamin Lewis V! Since I get absolutely no say in the name department for our first son (which I've known since early on in dating John so I'm cool with it) I have insisted that he go by Benjamin or Ben because it seems far too confusing to have two Johns' living in the same house!