What's in a name

So, we started with B'Andra making it very clear that she alone was calling the shots on the name for our little girl. She claims that I was able to pick Gidian, a name she was not crazy about, and that it was her turn.

Hard to argue with someone actually forming the child in her belly and suffering all the discomfort associated with the task.

So B' set a few rules:
1) the name could NOT be made up. it had to exist in a name book, genealogy chart or something.
2) it could not be so common that it was a trend name (i.e. we had chosen Ella a few years ago, but in the meantime, it has become very popular)
3) it had to be classy and hopefully something that would work for a child AND an adult.

I should get a copy of the list of names that were in the running. Some pretty cool names.

The reason we went with Elspeth:
1. It is unique
2. It sounds pretty
3. It is the Scottish version of Elizabeth (B'Andra has a Scottish heritage as her maiden name is McAffee), another name in the top 5 and my mom's favorite name of all time.
4. It has great nicknames: Elsie, Elsa, Elise, Betty (just kidding, Betty is off limits)
5. Elsa (a diminutive of Elspeth) is the Danish version Elizabeth: Consecrated to God.

The reason we went with D'Lene:
1. Madelene was at the top of the name list
2. Dalene was in the baby name book shown as a diminutive form of Madelene.
3. Dalene sounds like B'Andra's parents Dallen and Shirlene combined without being made up.
4. We decided to change the spelling to D'Lene as a memorial to B'Andra's dad and his history of cool spelling protocol as shown by the following list of B'Andra's siblings:

Gragn Ethn
Shamby Cryl
B'Andra Rhondi
DeLys Aryann
Zont'l Phylesh

So we added the apostrophe, the capital letter in the middle of the name and the seemingly obvious shortage of vowells.

Nick names:

Jiagie:

Jiagie came around when B' was pregnant last summer. we were in Disneyland (I can see you are surprised by that) and we would talk about the baby, but B'Andra thought we needed a name. At the time, Gidian had "Pirates on the Brain" and we were going laps through Pirates of the Carribean. At the time, Gidian pronounced Jolly Roger (the priate flag with skull of bones) Jiagie Roggah (jaw-gee raw-gah). So we just started call the baby Jiagie.

As most of you know, Jiagie I never happened and everytime Gidian asked "Mommy, where is Jiagie?" She would cry. So when she got pregnant last november and told Gidian, he said "Jiagie is back???? ". So cute.

So he has been calling Mom's belly Jiagie since day 1 and before we knew if it were a boy or girl. We will try to keep that nick name in the family, but I'm afriad it is here to stay.

Other nicknames that have surfaced already:

Els Bells. Cute for two reasons: Elle is 'girl' in French and "Belle" is beautiful in French. So Els Bells = Beautiful Girl. And it is also a kick-ass AC/DC song!

Bug-a-boo. Or just Bug. This one just crept up on accident, like Bubba for Gidian. Nothing you would ever plan or athorize, but just feels right.