Choosing Name Series: Jenn

Hey there!! Im Jennifer from the Vanzant Family Blog! So excited to be apart of the name series! Hope you come over to my blog and check it too! I am a stay at home mom of three under two! Yup, you heard that correctly! Two year old twins and a sweet miracle who is about to turn one! I blog about my everyday life with raising kids, recipes, DIY projects and more! You can view my blog here

1. What are your children's names? Jocelynn Caye Vanzant, Jeffrey Paul Vanzant and Madelynn Rae Vanzant

2. Are any of the names honoring anyone? Jeffrey's name is for sure. We had a very hard time ttc before going thru IVF to get our twins. As you all know IVF is outrageously expensive. Well, my dad and my husbands dad helped us out a bit in this situation. What better way to say thank you than name our son after them both? The name Jeffrey comes from my dad. His name is Jeffrey and we call him Jeff. I actually call him dad;) The name Paul comes from Matts dad. It is his middle name and the initials "JP" actually run in Matts family. We call Jeffrey Paul "JP". Thats all he knows actually. He has no clue his name is Jeffrey Paul hah! Jocelynns middle name is "Caye" which is my middle name too.

3. What other names did you consider naming them? Oh goodness. We had so many names. It got so hard for me that I ended up letting Matt choose their official names. I liked every name we had on our lists. We didn't find out what we were having when we were pregnant with Maddie. We called her "nugget" while we were pregnant. We did decided fairly quickly on a name choice for either a boy or a girl. I loved our boy name! It was "Jace Matthew". I love both of those names and they just fit so well together. When nugget decided to come and we found out she was a she.. her name fit immediately. It is so funny how after you choose a name, that baby just fits that name so well.

4. Why did you pick the names you chose? There was just something about those names. I just loved them. And they fit each of our babies so well.

5. Did you and your spouse have trouble agreeing on a name? Not really. We were just so indecisive about the middle names. I gave up after a couple of months and told the husband to choose. I was so tired of all the names games. He chose the middle names and I love them all!

6. Did you come up with a name before the child arrived?  Yes we did. We knew what the twins names would be before they were born. The same thing with Maddie too. We just didn't know which name we would use for her.. a boy or a girls name. But honestly i knew i was pregnant with a little girl and was in love with the name Madelynn and calling her "maddie" already.

7. Explain the process about naming the child. Well, if you're like me you kind of had a hint ever since you were just a baby yourself what you wanted to name your kids. I had the perfect name chosen growing up but I made a mistake and shared it with a friend. She had a baby before I did and guess what? Yup, she named her child that. So when me and Matt found out we were pregnant the first time we dove into the name books, apps and more. I skimmed across the name Jocelynn one day and just couldn't stop thinking about it. The same thing happened with Madelynns name too. I just loved them so much! It fits their characters so well too! It is so crazy. So dive into those books or apps or even favorite TV shows! You will know when you come across a name you love! I know I did with all of mine!

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Thank you so much Jenn for guest posting today!  Hope you all enjoyed her post :)

Choosing Names: Stefanie's Guest Post

Hello all!  Happy Monday!  Today's post is from Stefanie about choosing her children's name!  Hope you enjoy and thanks so much Stefanie!!

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Naming a child can be a difficult process!  A name is one of the first gifts you give your child, so it takes a lot of thought. I have some experience with this process, because I had the privilege of naming four children!

We never found out the gender of our children while we were expecting, so we had to come up with two names each time.  In my experience, coming up with a boy name was a lot more difficult!

My husband and I tend to go for simple boy names that can't be shortened into a nickname, but we are the opposite with girl names.  We like elegant ones that can be shortened into a cute nickname.  The middle names are always in honor of a family member.

We found out we were expecting our first child in 2004, and we immediately bought a baby name book.  I suggested the name Alexandria for a girl.  It was a name I always loved, and I was supposed to be Alexandra until my older siblings vetoed it. While reading through the book, we found another girl name that we loved: Arabella. We decided if the baby was a girl, we would wait until we met her to see which name fit her best. We read through the list of boy names, from A to Z, and Dylan was the only name we both agreed on.  We decided on Dylan, with the middle name Ross, which is a family name on my husband's side.

On November 22nd, Dylan Ross entered our lives.  His name was chosen early in our pregnancy, and the name fits him perfectly!

Two years later, baby #2 was on the way.  Alexandria and Arabella were still the only names on our girl list and we decided on Logan or Caden for a boy. We chose the middle name Elizabeth for a girl, after my mom's second middle name.  Once again, we decided to wait until we met our baby to see which name fit him/her best.

On February 22nd, 2007, Alexandria Elizabeth was born.  Within a few hours, we gave her the nickname Lexie.  I love how she has a pretty first name that will be perfect in a professional situation, but a nickname that suits her well right now.

About two years after Lexie was born, I heard the name Lilia, and I loved it. I thought it would sound even prettier as Liliana (pronounced Lily-awna).  Even though we thought we were done having children, I told my husband that if we ever had another girl, her name would be Liliana.  He agreed, and 2 years later, we decided to have another baby.

We never even discussed a girl name.  Liliana Kathryn would be the name if we had a girl.  Kathryn is my middle name, which happens to be a family name. We never settled on a boy name, although many were suggested.  If it was a boy, he would be named Hayden or Liam, but it was never decided.  While I was pushing, we argued boy names!

Luckily, we didn't have to decide.  On August 3rd, 2011, Liliana Kathryn was welcomed into the world as the sun rose over Pittsburgh.  Her nickname quickly became Lily and the name is just as sweet as she is.

We thought that was the end of our baby naming story, but when Lily turned 17 months, we found out another little blessing would be joining us.  We immediately decided to use Arabella as our girl name, but we could not come up with a boy name.

We argued names through my entire pregnancy, and we were still arguing over the name while I was pushing.  The only thing certain was that he would have the middle name Dayne after my husband's dad's middle name.  He passed away just before we found out we were expecting again, and we knew we would give our son that name, in honor of him.

On August 18th, 2013, a beautiful little boy joined our family.  When our son was born, we were delivered the unexpected news that they suspected he had Down Syndrome.  We were so shocked over the news that we never settled on a name.

When he was a few hours old, I told my husband that he could choose the name. On our list was Mason, Liam, and Cohen.  My husband smiled and announced his name would be Liam Dayne.

I'm 99.9% certain that Liam is our last child.  I am slightly bummed that we won't get to use the name Arabella, but maybe I can convince one of my daughters to use it someday!

Our baby naming journey lasted nearly a decade.  The names we chose fit our children's personalities perfectly!