Her Name

Back when we were engaged, we decided that we'd like our kids to have at least their first name be after a saint and at least their middle name be after a relative.

We had no trouble at all deciding on a boy's name, but a girl's name proved way more difficult. We changed our minds three times throughout the past nine months and only decided on our baby girl's name three days before she arrived.

Her patron saint is St. Clare of Assisi. Adam's favorite saint is St. Francis, who was great friends with St. Clare. When we studied abroad in Provence, we took a week-long trip to Italy and spent a day in Assisi to see both of their basilicas.

The decision to spell her name Claire instead of Clare was extremely spur-of-the-moment. Right after the c-section, a nurse asked how we wanted to spell her name and we just went with the most common spelling.

Claire is also named after two very special women:



Adam's paternal grandma, Camille. She was one of the most cheerful people ever, basically. She carried a clown nose around in her purse!



And my neighbor and honorary grandma, Claire. Since my grandparents live in Canada and I grew up in Texas, we didn't get to see them too often. But Mrs. Spiering, as we call her, invited my sister and I over all the time to play cards and dress up in her fancy old clothes.

We hope Claire will grow up to be just as friendly and kind as these lovely ladies!



P.S. You can see lots and lots more pictures of Claire right here on Flickr.