Baby Names

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner does a Show Us Your Life linky every Friday. I don't participate often, but Baby Names is one I could not resist! Baby names are something that I think about CONSTANTLY. I know- weird. First I wanted to share for those that might not know how we came to our son's name

Manning Parker

Anyone who knows my husband knows he is Peyton Manning's biggest fan, so you'd think we came to this name easily, and that it was his idea, but that was not so. When we first got married and discussed baby names we decided we both like quirky and unique names, but nothing TOO weird. We quickly agreed that our first son would be named Maddox Kincade. We both loved the name...even though the idea for Kincade came from a horror movie. :)

Then a few things happened. First of all, Angelina Jolie named her son Maddox. As you know, a name can go from being totally obscure to the next most popular name simply by one celebrity using it. Then a girl we went to school with named her son Maddox Cade. Cute! Then, several years passed. I quit taking BC and we tried for a year and a half to get pregnant. During this time, we stopped talking about names other than Nathan joking he was going to name our first son Peyton Manning BeVelle I think we just pretended we weren't "trying" because we were both scared it was never going to happen. When I got a positive pregnancy test, the name discussion was back full on.

After a lot of deliberation we decided our boy name would be Kingston Parker (I'll explain the middle name later) and we were both very happy with the choice. A few nights before we were to get our sonogram which revealed the gender I had a panic attack- literally- over our boy name. Something just didn't fit about Kingston, and I felt this STRONG urge that we had to choose a name before we found out what we were having. It was actually me who suggested Manning. While I love Peyton too, it has become such a common girl name and as a girl with a name that is typically for boys, I didn't want to do the same thing to my son. The more I thought about the name Manning the more I really liked the name, football affiliations aside. That is where we got Manning. Parks is my maiden name. I wanted a way to honor my family and we decided that since the last name would be the same as Nathan's we would use Parker as the middle name, boy or girl, to honor my roots. I am so glad we did.

We have several names in mind for future children, but few we have agreed on. I'm not going to share them here, because I'm immature and afraid people will steal them, but I will explain a little bit about how we chose/will choose baby names.

1. Unique, but not weird- I want my children to have a name that they won't share with five classmates, but that isn't so weird people can't spell or pronounce it.
2. Syllables- I think it's important to make sure the name has a good flow with syllables. Manning Parker are both two syllable words as is our last name, BeVelle (Buh-Vell) so it flows really nicely.
3. Rhyming- Nathan has a cousin named Michelle BeVelle. It is so cute on her that her name rhymes, but we can't duplicate that, so we avoided anything that sounds too silly. For example, one of my FAVORITE girl names EVER is Stella, but Stella BeVelle sounds silly! I want to say Stella BeVella...Get what I mean?
4. Timelessness- I think that sometimes people give their children a name that fits a child really well, but will be weird for an adult. Likewise, there are some babies running around with very adult names. I'd give examples to prove my point, but for fear of offending anyone I won't. :)
5. Nicknames- This might seem really silly, but I always think about what nickname might go with the name, and also what NEGATIVE nicknames might go with the name. I know that you can't completely avoid the chance of your child being mocked someday, but you don't have to make it easy! When I first told people Manning's name they'd ask what we are going to call him. I'd say "Manning" and they'd inquire what nickname would he go by? It struck me as so weird because Manning is only a two syllable name, and honestly it flows right off the tongue. Sometimes we call him M just for simplicity's sake, but it's rare. His most common nickname is MPB, which takes more effort to say than Manning.

I could go on for days about baby names, but I mostly wanted to get this written for Manning to look back on someday and to understand the significance of his name. The one piece of advice I'd offer to parents trying to find a baby name is to look back through your family geneology. There are some BEAUTIFUL older names that are making a strong comeback. Also, think of combinations you can make of names to honor someone special. A girl name we've tossed around is Annalynn because Nathan's mom's middle name is Ann and my mom and I both have Lynn. Neither name is striking or unique alone, but combined I think they are beautiful.

Motherhood in one picture

Kristen at We Are THAT Family asked readers to share a picture that defines motherhood to them. I have taken so many pictures with my son in the almost six months since he was born, but this one is the most special to me.

This is me in the recovery room, post-op, holding my baby for the first time. White as a sheet after seventeen hours of labor and a c-section, and happier than I had ever been in my life...and from this moment, my life was forever changed.