What's in a Name?

When choosing a name for our daughter my first instinct was to find the most feminine name possible.  I really loved the name Lily Grace.  However, my husband HATED it!

He had made up his mind that he wanted to follow in the tradition of his family and have his initials carried on by his children, as his father had with him.  Their initials are "TEP".  Obviously, the name Lily didn't fit this pattern and I was a little annoyed that I had to potentially compromise the naming of my first child without consideration of what I wanted too.

To be honest, I knew how he felt about this subject before we got pregnant.  This is why I made him promise that if we had a boy, that he could name him whatever name he chose (within reason of course) and if I got pregnant with a little girl that I would get to name her.  Well, by now, you know that we are having a girl.  The agreement we had made went out of the window,when he decided that he would like no other name than one that began with a "T".

I don't know if you've ever gone through the 'T' section of the baby book, but the names just were not my style.  Many in my opinion sounded too old, too eccentric, too harsh or too much like a stripper.  I thought for sure that I would just have to override my husband's wish to carry on this tradition.

I made it a point to sit down with him and address my concerns.  I let him know that I really wanted our daughter to have a feminine name and that I had not found a 'T' name that I felt I would actually like and that would fulfill that requirement for me.  The look on his face made my heart sink.  He literally looked like I kicked him in the gut.  I immediately wanted to take back everything I had said.  I knew then, that this wish to have his intials passed down to our kids meant more to him than I had originally thought.  I felt horrible.

At that moment, I really stopped and thought about both of our perspectives on the topic.  He had a strong family connection to why he wished to name our daughter with his initials and I simply wanted a name that was pretty.  Looking back, I guess I was a little selfish.  The words however, had already been spoken, and I could tell that although he was hurt, he didn't want me to be unhappy either....  

Now What?

Well, I had a few outfits that I knew that I wanted to have personalized for her.  I also knew that if we decided on a name, that if I monogrammed her things, that it would be a confirmation for my husband that I would not change my mind, so that's exactly what I did.

After much searching, we found the name Taryn.  It means 'tender/innocent'.  I knew what her middle name would be right away.  I have  always liked the classic elegance of the name Elizabeth.  It means 'God's Promise'.  This was perfect because of the way she came into our lives- unexpectedly- but so wanted after a full year of trying to grow our family after the loss of our first pregnancy.

So, What's in a name?  Everything, we hope our daughter to be.