What's in a name

  My friend, who is an avid reader of blogs, suggested that I do a post on how we came up with our daughter's name. Unfortunately, being a nurse,  a lot of names I correlate with patients I may have taken care of (most of them being a negative correlation). Brian liked a lot more names than I did and I spent the majority of the time shooting down his ideas.

  We were lucky enough to have some phone apps and a name book to search through names. Most people are surprised when I tell them that we have already come up with name, but once we found out what we were having, Brian wanted a name we could start calling the baby by. Some people are very adamant that a baby may not "look" like the name and to wait. I personally think a lot of babies look similar and don't really grow into their "look" until further along so that has never been something that has concerned us.

  Both Brian and I were never "set" on a name we had always wanted (well I guess that is a lie, I was set on the middle name) for a boy or girl so we just started throwing out ideas. Brian came up with the name Peyton for a boy. I told him I didn't like it for a boy, but for a girl I did. Brian didn't care if it was a boy or girl name, he just liked it. The more I started to think about the name the more I started to fall in love with it. Once we saw some of the meanings behind it, I was sold! From day one the embryologist called this baby a fighter and to give it a chance. With only one two-celled embryo, I knew if this baby took it was going to be a fighter. Depending on what app or book you look at, the name Payton comes from either "fighter's farm", or "from the warrior's village." How perfect!!!!

  There are three ways I have seen Payton spelled and, of course, we are going to spell it the least common of the three. PEYTON is often the spelling used for boys. PAYTON is the most common female spelling. PAITYN is another way to spell it and, to me, it is the feminine especially with it being a gender neutral name. People always warn you about spelling a name differently. They say "you will never find a cup with her name on it, etc." So many things can be personalized these days it doesn't even bother me. You can make a case with even the most popular names: Sara, Sarah, Katie, Kate, Katy, etc. I will tell her to not get mad if people spell it wrong, it her mom's fault :)

  The middle name I have touched on before. My great grandmother's name was MAE. I feel so blessed to have been able to enjoy 21 years with her. She died when she was 96 and was one of the most wonderful women I have ever met. Not only that, but my grandmother, mother, and myself all have the middle name of MAE. I told my great grandma before she died that if I had a girl, her middle name would be MAE also. I am so excited to carry on a such a meaningful name and can't wait to tell Paityn about her great great grandmother.

 So with is all decided, our little fighter daughter will be named:     

PAITYN MAE HIME