Monday, April 14, 2014

What's in a name?

Choosing our children's names was one of the most exciting and daunting things hubby and I did when I was pregnant. Should we go traditional? Eccentric? Hollywood? Picking that perfect name is so important for any parent since that would be the name your kid will live with forever. I remember in the hospital while filling up their birth certificates, hubby and I would always ask each other "So is THIS it na talaga? Sure na? No turning back!" ;p

I remember having my kids' names picked out even when I was a little girl. It changed through the years though. Like there was a time I was obssessed with the Sound of Music and loved the name Martha (the 2nd youngest Von Trapp child), Then came the phase of wanting Spanish sounding names like Jose Antonio to American names like Jason Christian...

But of course when I got married, I wanted my hubby to have a say in our babies' names too. But I remember we had even discussed jokingly before that I would be in charge of naming any girl babies while he could name the sons. No questions asked. Meaning if he wanted to name our son Chewbacca Yoda, I couldn't object. And if I wanted to name our daughter Cutie Pie Sparkles, he should be fine with that. Well, obviously we didn't name our kids anything like that, but I guess it did happen that I had more say in Miley's name, while hubby had more control over Sabe and Skyler's... 

I had always wanted to have a theme or a connecting factor in our kids names. Like maybe naming all of them starting with one letter. Or maybe combining our names to come up with a new name (Vins + Helene = Vilene?). Or naming them all after a specific thing (for example fruit like Orange, Apple, Strawberry). I knew sisters who were named Queenie, Princess, and Duchess while hubby knew a family who were named after chocolates - Hershey, Nestle, and Reese.

For us, the theme was that all our kids' names are connected to airplanes and flying which my hubby has a passion for. Read on to find out how we came up with their names. :)

MILEY

If you think that we named our daughter after Miley Cyrus, you're kind of right... sort of... but not really... just let me tell you the story and you be the judge hehe! ;p

I admit that I was a big Miley Cyrus fan back when she was still Hannah Montana (can you even remember Miley Cyrus being that sweet and innocent? No? Gotcha.). When I got pregnant, Miley was one of the names I would teasingly say I'd be naming the baby just to annoy hubby...

Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana
source


Meanwhile, my maternal grandmother had just passed away the year before when we found out we were having a girl. So I just felt in my heart that I wanted to name my daughter after her - AMELIA.

Which was also perfect since Amelia Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

source

Now why Miley again? Well, after all that joking, hubby finally admitted that he was warming up to the name and found it cute... And isn't it the perfect nickname to Amelia? Even my lola's nickname was "Mely" so Miley would be the new version of her name hehe.

And after Miley was born, she was just the smiliest baby ever so her name suited her perfectly.

our little SMiley :)


SABRE

When we found out we were having a boy next, you can bet hubby was really excited. Personally, I was pushing to name him after hubby, but hubby didn't like the whole Junior thing (but now Sabre looks exactly like his dad which would have made the name really perfect for him hehe).

We went through name after name in different baby books, but nothing seemed quite right. Until hubby thought of Sabre... which I thought was a joke at first. I mean, the first thing anybody thinks of when they hear this name is a saber-toothed tiger right? But hubby said it was all in the spelling - SABRE instead of Saber (which is also more commonly known as a sword).

According to Wikipedia, The North American F-86 Sabre (sometimes called the Sabrejet) was a 
transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States's first swept wing fighter which could counter the similarly-winged Soviet MiG-15 in high-speed dogfights over the skies of the Korean War. Considered one of the best and most important fighter aircraft in the Korean War, the F-86 is also rated highly in comparison with fighters of other eras.

North American F-86 Sabre Jet Fighter Plane
source

Ok, now the name sounded cool. Although I knew he would experience having people mispronounce his name in the future. I can just picture his teachers calling him Sab-reh instead of Say-ber, gets? But hubby was set and I eventually loved how unique the name was.

showing signs of his "fighting" personality early on

SKYLER

We were completely at a lost when it came to naming baby number 3. The thing was, we had already picked a girl name we loved, so when we found out it was another boy, it was back to the drawing board for us. Hubby liked Scotland (just because), Robb (for Robb Stark), or even Cesar (after his lolo this time). But it had no connection to our theme. Even my OB was giving us suggestions like Stealth (which are aircrafts designed to avoid detection).

I was at a point where I didn't care anymore, I just wanted hubby to choose already since it was almost my due date! And finally, he decided on SKYLER, which fit our aviation theme perfectly.


According to this siteSkyler is an anglicised form of the Dutch surname Schuyler and means guarded or scholar. For us though, Skyler is based on the basic definition of what the sky is - the limitless expanse of space above earth... where airplanes fly.

reach for the SKY!


BABY #4?

Now going back to that girl name I mentioned... Hubby and I have loved this name for years and was all set to use it if by chance Skyler turned out to be a girl.

Now did you ever see the Sex and the City episode where Charlotte's secret baby name (Shayla) got taken by a good friend, which she found out about during the baby shower? 

SATC "The Baby Shower" episode

Well... I don't know if this is the weirdest coincidence ever. But my sister-in-law (who's married to my hubby's younger brother) just told me that they've finally chosen a name for their baby girl due this August. Both her and her hubby's name start with an "A", so naturally they wanted something that began with that letter. So imagine my surprise (and shock!) when she said the name they chose was...

AVIANNA

Yes, this was exactly the name hubby and I loved and were reserving for that time if we were to be blessed with another baby girl. You know, coming from the word aviation so it fit in perfectly with our theme. But with only one "N" though, so Aviana. But still!

Hubby and I can't remember if we had mentioned this name before, but she had found and liked the name from Amy Adam's daughter. 

Amy Adams with daughter Aviana
source

Now we're not mad or anything, just really surprised that out of all the names out there, we would both think of THIS name. And it's not like it's a common name or anything. I guess great minds think alike. And if anyone would be using this name at least it will be our niece and still be in the family. 

So maybe this is a sign that we won't have another daughter anymore, who knows? All I know is, if ever we do get pregnant again in the future, finding that perfect name would now be more difficult and challenging than ever haha!

No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...