We Finally Found a Name at the 11th Hour
by Chris
(Roseville, California, USA)
Little Olivia Marie - Our sweet, goofball of a girl!
Well before our first two children were born, my wife and I knew exactly what their names would be- first names honoring great-grandparents and middle names matching our own (perfect that we had one boy and one girl!).
The process was easy, and there were no ongoing comments from family wondering what we were going to do or why we were doing it.
Then came child number 3.
We knew that our third child was going to be a girl, and upon learning this we started the process of deciding on a name.
We thought of family, we thought of names that ‘fit’ with her siblings, and all we could come up with after several months was that her middle name would be Marie. This was well received by family, as it is the middle name of both grandparents and two great-grandparents.
Unfortunately, we hit a road block with the first name.
The older siblings both had Z’s in their name, so we thought Zoe would be nice, but the more we thought about it, it seemed too cutesy when you put all three kids’ names together.
We had grandparents bombarding us with at least two names per day. We had friends, neighbors, and our children coming up with all sorts of names (even Pizza from our son).
But try as we might, we could not decide on a name for our soon to arrive little girl!
With about two weeks until her due date, we had narrowed it down to three names: Emily, Addie/Addison, and Katie.
None of them, however really stuck out as THE NAME.
Finally, as I sat at my desk preparing schoolwork for the substitute that would take over my class once I got ‘the call,’ a coworker came and sat down next to me.
He is a big man, with a quiet demeanor, and has two daughters of his own. He asked, “So, do you have a name yet?”
When I responded “No,” he told me about the name he didn’t use. He told me that there was a third girl name that he and his wife planned to save for their next daughter.
He then told me that they decided to stop trying to have more children. His exact words were “Olivia is a great name, and you can use it if you want.”
I went home and shared the story with my wife, and she immediately grinned from ear to ear.
That next day, little Olivia Marie was born, and to this day I cannot think of a better name that would fit our sweet, goofball of a girl!
