Her Name

Adam and I never really talked about specific names before we found out we were expecting for the first time. We did, however, lay some ground rules:

- We wanted each child's first name to be after their patron saint. If possible, we wanted to choose saints that we felt a special connection to.

- We wanted each child's middle name to be after a relative. We decided to start with our grandparents, so that gave us eight names to work with. Bonus points if their first name is also a family name somehow.

- We wanted each child's name to reflect our cultural heritage. Which is pretty easy, since we are both of Irish/English/Scottish decent. Basically, no matter how much we admire the saint, we won't be naming anyone Therese. More ethnic names would just sound really weird with our last name.

- We don't care how popular the name is, but we do think it's important that there's only one spelling. Or at least one spelling that's far more common. Growing up, it never bothered me that there was always another Caitlin in my class, but I do find it annoying that there are so many ways to spell my name!

We named our eldest daughter Claire Camille. She is named after Saint Clare. We got to spend a day in her hometown, Assisi, when we were traveling through Italy on our semester abroad.  She is also named after Adam's late paternal grandmother, Camille. As a bonus, she shares the name Claire with my childhood next-door neighbor and honorary grandma, Mrs. Spiering. There are a few ways to spell her name, but hers is the traditional English spelling and the one that seems to come first to mind for almost everyone.

And, we are naming our second daughter...

Margaret Joyce. 

{image via}

Her patron saint is Margaret of Scotland. While we were studying abroad, we spent a day in Edinburgh. We got to see her castle and the chapel inside that is dedicated to her memory. 

Her middle name is in honor of my late paternal grandmother, Joyce. {She's the blushing bride in the picture above.} As a fun little bonus, Margaret is actually my middle name. Since it's kind of a long name for a baby, we are planning to call her Maggie! 

P.S. So, my initial clue {haw haw} might have been too tricky for non-history majors. You see, in World War II, the Nazis broadcast a radio program to England that was chock full of propaganda. It's goal was to discourage and generally demoralize the British. The announcer was given the nickname "Lord Haw Haw" but his real name was William Joyce. A "Lady Haw Haw" occasionally appeared on the show, who just happened to be Mr. Joyce's wife, Margaret. 

 P.P.S. I promise we're not naming our daughter after a Nazi propagandist. Just a coincidence! But Katie's husband, Jeff, successfully figured it out. There really is a prize, so look for something in the mail from us!