How I Named My Daughter

I had picked out my sons name before I was even old enough to have children. At twelve years old I knew my first-born child would be named Dakota Austin. Over the next few years I would tease everyone that my second child would be named Tacoma Dallas. It wasn't until I found out I was pregnant with my daughter that I would pick a new name for her.

My daughter's father insisted that I could not name our child Tacoma Dallas. Prior to finding out the gender of the baby we decided we would stick with his initials, CJK. We tossed around different male names, including naming the baby after him and adding Jr. on the end.

After a lot of deliberating we had decided on the name Chylee Joann for a girl's name. I always liked the name Kiley and found that changing the spelling to match her father's initials was easy. Joann is my mother's name and I was adamant about naming the baby after her if it would be a girl.

Very early in the pregnancy I found myself having an amniocentesis. During the procedure they were able to tell me that I was having a girl. I was ecstatic. I already had a son and now I would have a daughter as well.

For the remainder of my pregnancy, six months, I would call my belly Chylee. When I saw a cute baby outfit I would remark that I had to buy it for 'Chylee'.

The morning after I delivered my beautiful daughter the nurse would bring in all the necessary birth certificate paperwork. As I started to fill in her name her father stopped me.

He told me that he didn't want to upset his mother by naming the baby after my mother and no recognition of his. I understood but tried to play that this is the name we picked, and we even told everyone the name. I explained that she was still going to have his last name, which was also his mother's last name.

After a while of discussion we named our daughter Christine Joann. His mother's name was Christine and this way no one would feel left out and we wouldn't feel bad either.

From the day we brought her home the nickname CJ stuck with her. Although I love the name Chylee, I was happy that we were able to stick to our initial agreement to give the baby her father's initials, as well as name her after both her wonderful grandmothers.