"Are all of your kids named after rockstars?"
Sort of, but not on purpose...at first.
It's a little confusing, so let's get to it.
The truth is that we started off our baby naming journey wanting "last names as first names". I found the name Presley somewhere on Pinterest after searching "last names as first names" and fell in love with it. For me it was more meaningful too because my Grandma Bison is a huge Elvis Presley fan. But her name didn't come about because I was like, "oh, my grandma loves Elvis! Let's name her Presley!" It was more of a, "awww Presley is a cute name! How perfect is it that my grandma loves Elvis, too?!" Does that make sense? Hopefully!
Her middle name is Shannon, for Tim's sister that died as a baby.
Quick and funny story about that! When we adopted our dog named Strauss, he was put up on the Rescue's website as being named Elvis. The Rescue had named all of the puppies after famous singers. We actually went in to the Rescue to view another puppy named Chubby Checkers. But once we got there, the little puppy named Elvis was the one who played with Presley the most. We joke that Elvis chose Presley because he needed to complete his name ;)
It's funny how stuff like that works out!
When we got pregnant with Sawyer, we chose to wait to find out gender. Going into her birth we knew if she was a boy her name would be Porter. I was scrolling Facebook one day when a friend of mine posted a picture of her daughter with her daughter's little friend named Sawyer. I thought that it was the cutest thing for a girl to be named Sawyer! Sawyer is a popular name but not for a girl. So when a little girl popped out in the birthing room, I knew in my heart that I wanted her to be named Sawyer. It took Tim seeing her to finally make that call. He liked the name Sawyer because of the character Tom Sawyer and because of the song by Rush. But she wasn't named *because of them*.
Her middle name is Kay, after my Mom's middle name.
We got pregnant with the twins around the time the show Nashville was big (2014). There are two sisters on the show that are sisters in real life. Their names are Lennon and Maisy.
When I heard the name Lennon for the girl, I was obsessed. I prayed so hard that one day I'd be able to have another little girl so I could just name her Lennon. So when we got pregnant with the twins and found out they were going to be girls, there was no question that Baby A would be named Lennon. I don't even think I let Tim debate it. It was already a done deal for me. We just needed to figure out Baby B's name.
Lennon's middle name is Marie. All of the girls on Tim's side of the family are all given the middle name Marie. So we kept that tradition with her.
Since I basically named all of the other girls, Tim got to name the second twin. I really wanted Monroe but he wasn't having it. He wanted to stick with this rockstar theme we somehow found ourselves on. If we were going to go that route, I threw out the name Jovi. I thought it was cute and simple. He wasn't a huge fan.
Early on he liked the name Halen, for Van Halen obviously. I was worried people wouldn't be able to pronounce it the right way (Hay-len). I thought people would always pronounce it like Hale-in. But throughout the weeks and months leading up to her birth, the name grew on me. It really didn't matter anyways because I had already given him permission to name her. So it was just a matter of me getting used to it.
I chose to give Halen my Grandma Bison's middle name, Jean. My grandma's full name is Helen Jean. So by naming her Halen Jean, it was really only one letter off of my grandma's. When I realized this, her name became really meaningful for me.
Easton was named by his parents but there's an interesting twist to that, too. When he was born they called me and asked me to choose between two names. They liked both Easton and Mason. My dad pleaded his case to me by saying he preferred the name Easton because it's the brand of hockey stick he used. His wife was leaning more towards Easton as well but she still liked the name Mason. Because Easton seemed more meaningful, I told them that was the name I preferred. The rest is history!
It's a little crazy that I played a part in naming him as well.
His middle name is Duane, after our grandfather's middle name.
It was two and a half years before we even considered having another baby. Truthfully, we never thought we'd have more children. But eventually we started to feel like there was one missing.
When we got pregnant with our last baby, we chose to wait to find out gender again. In the beginning we had decided that if it was a boy, his name would be Porter. If it was a girl, her name would be Bowie.
After a few weeks we both decided to just stick to the weird rockstar theme we stumbled upon and name the baby after David Bowie regardless if it was a boy or a girl. He was named Bowie long before he popped out a boy, but I think his name fits him perfectly.
His middle name is James and Tim wanted that because Tim's middle name is James, too.
So truthfully, only Halen and Bowie were the only ones *really* named after Rockstars. They're the only two that we really sat down and Googled Rockstar names for. The other's were just coincidences.
But when we introduce the twins, I always say, "Lennon and Halen. You know, like John Lennon and Van Halen!" Even though Lennon wasn't technically named after John. It just makes it less confusing.
So if you meet us in public, we will say that we did name them all after Rockstars. But if you know us personally or if you follow our family on this blog, you will know that's not *totally* the case.
I still really love the name Jovi, but it'll never happen because Tim had a vasectomy.
So yeah, there's the answer in a very drawn out, detailed way. I hope that helps clarify it a little bit!
