More about Bri, Bria, Brynn, Beanie, Beaners . . .

This is for you, Shawna.  I hope it isn't too boring and a complete disappointment.

So, many of you remember my petition for baby girl name ideas.  And I have to say that this was some poetic justice that it was hard for me to choose a name because my sister always has a hard time choosing a name with HER impossible husband who likes every name she doesn't and doesn't like every name she loves.  And I never understood how HARD it can be to be in that choosing a name game situation with a man who likes names like Ursula -- or Dagney in my case.  So it serves me right for all the times I pestered her about why she hadn't just chosen a name already and when they were going to choose one.

And silver lining around the dark cloud that was my last post includes me seeing a tender mercy in the birth certificate lady CONTINUALLY hounding us for a name and even bringing us a book of 40,001 names.  Thank goodness for that last one, or maybe Brianna would still be nameless! ;-D

Anyway - here's the brief story of how Brianna came to be called -- well, I'm still not exactly sure what she will be called, but at least she will forever be NAMED Brianna.

I had the hardest time getting Dave to sit down and look at and choose a name -- any name -- an option, a starting point, an inkling of interest.  The one time he did, he came across Dagney when he got to the D's and pretty much closed the computer and spent the next . . . forever . . . talking about how it was the PERFECT name.  And he never did sit down at another list after that.

So, after explaining to him EVERY SINGLE TIME that Dagney was NOT a name for a little girl, I finally got him to talk about names as we drove down to pick my mom up at the airport (and don't think I didn't subtley suggest every ONE of your suggestions without getting the LEAST degree of interest or reciprocity from him on ANY of them -- thanks anyway).

On that trip, Dave decided that he really liked Naomi Grace - and we would call her Gracie.  Now, I actually liked that name.  That was actually okay with me EXCEPT for the fact that it didn't really have a good namesake, not one that would produce a book for our namesake library for this little girl.  I mean, Naomi was a wonderful woman, exemplary really.  But there aren't many books devoted just to her or much about her.  I guess I could have been the first to write one . . . but, you get the idea.  So pretty much that name stayed at the top right up to the end.  But I'm jumping the gun here.

Other names that Dave liked included Samantha and Natalie -- he REALLY liked Natalie for some reason.  And I had always thought that I would like those names.  But then I started thinking about calling my little girl Sam or Sami or Nat or Natty and -- I just couldn't do it.  Those names are so masculine.  It just didn't jive with me.

When Dave left me at the hospital with the charge to choose a first name from Naomi, Natalie, and Samantha and a middle name from Jane and Grace, I have to say that I looked at my little girl and tried every name on her and all of the nicknames as well.  And to me, she was a Gracie through and through.  Not just because the name seemed to fit her little pixie face and cute red hair but because of the meaning of the word Grace and all that implies and all this pregnancy meant for me personally and all that has happened since she was born.  Gracie was just HER.  And I was leaning more and more towards the Naomi Grace idea with the given that I would just have to write a book about Naomi from the Bible for my little namesake.

But just as I was about to say, "Final answer," I remembered that Dave's sister is due in November and told me they were naming their little girl Katherine Grace.  And since she told me that months ago, she kind of has dibs on the name.  And I wasn't sure if she was planning on calling her Grace or Katherine and didn't want to step on toes (of all of his sisters, she is the MOST sensitive and would be perhaps the only one to actually take offense at something like that).  So, rather than play ignorant I did what any good sister-in-law would do and called to ask what they were planning on calling their little girl.  I got her husband, who told me that they were naming her Grace Katherine so - duh - they would be calling her Grace.  Okay - sorry - my bad.  Scratch Gracie.

And that left me with nothing, and a bit heartbroken I will admit.  I could also really see her as an Emma, my favorite name from the onset.  But Dave's heart had not left his opposition to that name, even when he said, "Go ahead."  And she's his daughter, too, after all.

So when Dave came back to find that I was on my way home, and I explained that Grace was out and Naomi Jane just didn't feel right because I didn't want to call her Jane and couldn't see myself calling her Naomi or any sort of nickname combination of the two, we went to "the book."

We started looking at all of the lists.  Ironically, the list of names for strong women had almost ALL of my favorites on it, all of which he had already vetoed.  So we turned to other lists.  And he read off some names that he liked, none of which seemed very special or appropriate to me.  And after he read quite a few names from one list, I asked him to read the entire list.  After all, it had caught his attention on more than one name already, so it might just be a winner.

Brianna was on that list.  When he told me it meant strong, virtuous woman and I looked online and found that it also means one who ascends, I liked it.  When I thought about nicknames like Bri, Bria, and Brynn, all feminine and cute names for what would be a strong name when she got older and didn't want the nicknames any more, I decided I could handle that.  And it went perfectly with Jane.  When Dave said he could handle it as well, it stuck.  And Birth Certificate lady got there just in time for my discharge from the hospital.

To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this name -- still, a week later, I'm not sure that I love love love it.  But I've learned that with all of my efforts to choose a strong namesake from a strong, noble woman who has shaped the past, I have also given a name to a person who will define how that name is seen in the future by what she does with her life.  And since it means virtuous and strong and ascension in a time when virtuous women are scarce and strong women are anything but in my mind -- and a time when women will NEED to ascend in ways they have never had to before . . . well, I think it's perfect!  And I'm excited to see what she does with her name and what namesake she leaves for future generations.