March 15, 2014

What's In A Name?

You may or may not know that I was named after my father. His name was William Joseph. My name is Billie Jo. Get it? I was the fourth bundle of pink for my parents, and my mom says boy or girl, I was going to be named after my dad. And I am glad I was. I have no middle name. That was fun in school. Every year, my teacher would try to convince me that I needed to put a J in the box marked 'Middle Initial" on those pesky Achievement tests. Never mind that every year I told my teacher I was certain I knew my own name. I was baptized with the beautiful name Mary, after our blessed mother.


That's me. : )



My hubby was the seventh child in his family. Rumor has it his mother let the other kids vote on his name. Stephen it was. His middle name is that of his grandfather. The second time I met him, he asked me to guess what it was. He told me it began with a W, so my first guess was William. Then, I made a rather blunt comment that I hoped it wasn't something weird like Wilfred. Oops. Yep. That be my hubby...Stephen Wilfred. : )


And my hubby...look at those curls!



I always wanted to be a mom, and could not wait to name my babies. After being a teacher for five years, I found it difficult to come up with a name that did not immediately evoke the image of one of my students. Not that it was always a bad thing, but you get the idea. Before Madison was born, we had settled on the name Shelby for her. Well, Steve had. But after twenty four hours of hard labor, and an emergency C section, I was automatically granted the gift of naming that sweet baby anything my heart desired. We had chosen Madison as an option, and Madison it was. Her full name is Madison Marie. Her middle name was chosen to honor our Blessed Mother.


Madison Marie



We never found out what our babies were going to be, but I remember having Peyton's name chosen very earlier on. She was named by Steve, after a very beautiful character in a show we watched while I was pregnant. I loved it too. Her full name is Peyton Rose. And I love it. Rose was always a favorite name of mine. I actually used it as my Confirmation name. She was a tiny little thing, and I took to calling her my little Peyton Rose.


Peyton Rose



When Rhett came along, I was shocked that he was a boy. I don't know why, I just though that after two little ladies, I would have one more. Once the shock wore off, I chose the only name I ever had for a boy...Rhett. He is named after my favorite character from my favorite novel and movie ever, Gone With The Wind. If you have not seen the movie, you must. I insist. Get it, take your phone off the hook, get comfy on the sofa, pop some popcorn, and enjoy. You will thank me later. I promise. Anyway, Because I was so certain Rhett was going to be a girl, I had no middle name picked out for him. Poor Steve, when the nurse asked me what his middle name was going to be, I remember blurting out (in a drug induced fog) that I guess it would have to be Stephen, because I couldn't think of anything else! So...that is how my son got his name...Rhett Stephen.


Rhett Stephen



And my Flynn. Our blessing from God. None of our pregnancies came easily. And when we were praying for one more, we were told that we would have a slim chance of ever conceiving due to the fact that my hormone levels were approaching perimenopause. Well, tell that to God, because He sent us our Flynn in His own due time. : ) I loved the name Flynn, and that was going to be it, girl or boy. Her middle name is a favorite of mine, and my mother's grandmother's name, as well as my sister Scarlett's middle name. Her full name is Flynn Grace. Or, according to her, Baby Flynn. : )


and Flynn Grace.


So there you have it. Way more than you ever wanted to know about all the names in our family. Thanks for hanging in there. I would love to hear about your name choices sometime. : )



20 comments:

  1. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the names of your family and the pictures are just precious. My middle name is Stayton, which was my grandmother's maiden name. My first daughter got the same name as her middle name, and her second daughter's first name is the same. Love family names.

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  2. Beautiful babies and beautiful names!

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  3. I love that you share your precious father's name. Each of your children are so precious and I love their names.
    If John and I had had children we liked the names Holly and Andy!

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  4. I love that you are named after your father! That's pretty awesome. And I've enjoyed reading about how you named the rest of your kids.

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  5. I just love, love this post. Thank you for sharing. Ready?

    1. My original name was Jennifer Lynn, my mom had me while my dad was in Vietnam, in the meantime, unknown to her, he had been shot down, he insisted I be renamed Linda Marie after the nurse who saved him. Practially took a act of congress to get my named changed. I will have to make a post later on the others, (husband and son) lol. Blessings

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  6. What a great post! I will have to do a similar post sometimes about the names in my family. Like your's there is a little history behind each one. You have given each of your children wonderful, meaningful names. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Billie Jo, I am smiling after reading your sweet post. I love your baby picture with that tuft of hair in the middle of your head! Reminds me of my Anna. All the baby pictures are gorgeous and I enjoyed hearing the history behind the names! Thank you!

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  8. I got busy and haven't been here in a couple days and I miss it all!!

    I was also named after my dad!! I was named after both parents though. My dad's name is James and my mom's name is Connie Jo. Jamie Jo....but Jo is my middle name.

    Love your stories and I love those cute baby pictures!!! Adorable. Every one of them!

    (I also had a c-section with my first after 10 hours of hard labor!) (then all the rest were also C's)

    I love the reason you like Rhett...loved the movie! I also love that you have a sister named Scarlett!!

    Having worked at a school for 2 years and then daycare in my home, I had a hard time picking names...but my first daughter is named Katherine Grace, because of my preschoolers...I had one girl that was named Katherine and she could write her name, the full name, and I remember thinking, that's it, I'm naming my daughter this long name! (and Grace was from another sweet little girl that was one of my faves...I had lots of those, her name was Cameryn Grace--Oh, I loved her)

    Fun post!!

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  9. Such a fun post! Isabella's middle name is Marie as well. Each of the kids middle names are after our parents.
    My mom has the same picture of me leaning over the carpet. I am on a pink dress.

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  10. Hi Billie Joe! I love this post! So enjoying hearing about your family names! Gone with the Wind is one of my favorite movies, too! : )

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  11. Beautiful blessings from God! How precious to have your father's name. I wanted my children to name one of their children (even a girl) after my daddy. His name was Emory. I think Emery with than e would be a pretty girl's name. I think it's funny that as a teacher you couldn't come up with a name. I heard on of the women in my Bible class, if you're a teacher it's hard to pick a name because it reminds your students (Yikes!) My daughter says that we she wants her daughter to be named Georgia (after the state she was brought up in). I went Yikes because I know a Georgia. :)

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  12. Hi Billie Jo,

    I read this post earlier, but was not able to comment just then. It was fun reading...very interesting story about your name :)

    All of these photos are just so adorable! Thanks for sharing them.

    :) Hope

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  13. Oh I love hearing how you named your babies. Love that! One of these days I'll have to do a post on naming our girls. That would be fun! And Billie Jo... how I adore YOUR name after for father. xoxoxo tara

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  14. This post is so much fun. I need to ask my mom why she names me Chriistine. My middle name is Anne...after St. Anne!

    Your babies are so cute and sweet....why oh why do they have to grow up so fast. I would love to hold each of my kids....as a baby...for just one day.

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  15. An interesting post that I enjoyed reading.

    Thank you. Love love, Andrew. Bye.

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  16. This is so fun and unique, Billie Jo. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the history of each name. I adore the name Rose and have often said if I ever had a girl her middle name would be Rose. And Rhett...I absolutely LOVE IT!

    Thanks for sharing :) Hugs!

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  17. I love hearing all these stories of the names in your family. How awesome that you are named after your dear Dad. Thanks for sharing.

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  18. Oh I loved reading these! I did this for the girls awhile ago and I loved explaining the meanings of their names and how they came to be - it really is so special!
    I love all your kids' names and how you got your name, too!
    Hope it's a good week!

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  19. Oh, I love this post. I love hearing how people named their babies. As soon as my Cruise posts are finished, I will definitely be copying this post idea. Love it! Thanks for the inspiration. And I LOVE all of your babies' names, but I especially LOVE that you are named after your dad. So sweet. :)

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  20. I know this is an older post, but how shocked I am to see that we both have girls named Madison Marie! I'm going through your archives and they are so enjoyable! Hope you have a wonderful day!

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Thanks so much for saying hello!

Billie Jo