How We Chose Our Daughter's Names

My husband and I got married in June of 2003. His grandmother traveled 600 miles to see her first grandchild get married. She traveled that distance while being terminally ill with cancer. One month later we traveled 600 miles to be by her side as she passed away. While talking with her about names, we asked her what her full confirmed (Catholic Religion) name was. Mary Margaret Juliana Gorsuch. We decided at that moment that if we ever had a little girl Juliana would probably be her name.

Growing up I had always been very close to my own grandmother whose name was Elsie. I decided one day that if we ever had a little girl I also wanted also wanted to incorporate my grandmother's name and use the name Elisabeth.

In May 2004 when we learned that we were expecting we began pondering boy's names and girl's names. On our lists we had Juliana, Sophia, Grace, Elisabeth, and a few others. Our boys list was shorter and my husband went back and forth on whether he would want a son to have his name...John William. It had been passed down for generations. With much consideration we had on our list Wyatt, and John William (who would be nicknamed Jack after my husband's grandfather).

From early on I was positive I was going to have a little boy. When we went to the ultrasound they asked if we wanted to know the gender and we excitedly said YES. After which to only be told the baby was not cooperating and they couldn't tell. I continued to *feel* wholeheartedly that we were having a boy and even began calling my unborn baby, "Jack."

I went into labor three weeks early and we were not entirely ready for our little bundle of joy, and I was VERY surprised to learn that my Jack was a GIRL! Since we really hadn't discussed girl names in months the only thing that came to our minds was Juliana Elisabeth. She has definitely made the name!

With our second pregnancy we again began discussing names, but I don't remember talking much about boy names. At our ultrasound we learned that our new baby would be another little girl. We began the process of picking names we liked, and had a VERY long list. Unfortunately we agreed on NOTHING. We had bitter, heated battles about her name. Our list included the names Sophia, Jocelyn, Natalie, Mackenzie, and Mikayla....in just about that order. We knew we wanted her middle name to be Grace, but could NOT compromise on a first name. She came five weeks early which didn't give us much more time to think about names. While laboring we asked every female that came into the room what their name was and added it to the list or nixed it before it made the list. We showed every nurse the list and got their opinions on the names. I even remember telling my Midwife that if I had an easy delivery we would name the baby after her....she was out of the running by about 8 centimeters!! When out little girl was finally born we STILL could not agree on her name. We knew we wanted something different...kind of ruled out Sophia. I didn't think she looked like a Jocelyn, and finally I suggested Mikayla which we had only talked about a few times. After several hours, she got a name....Mikayla Grace and it totally works for her.