Naming Our Babies

Walking With You was created by Kelly of Sufficient Grace Ministries to help support those who have lost a child. Together we share our stories, helpful information, scriptures, encouraging words, prayer requests, and more. To join in on Walking With You please visit Kelly's blog.

This 5th week, we are sharing how we chose the names for our babies and any special meaning behind them.

I love picking out baby names. I just think it is so much fun. I started looking for names not long after I found out I was pregnant with Carleigh. What I do is I go through a whole bunch of names and write down ones I like. I then take my long list to Anthony and he gets rid of names he doesn't like. With what is left I narrow it down even more. When there's only a couple names I ask which one Anthony prefers. He usually doesn't care so then I end up picking the final name. This is how both Kyndra and Carleigh got their names.

I found out that Carleigh was a girl at 15 weeks and we decided on her name not long after we found out her gender. I didn't look up the meaning of her name at all. I just liked it. After her diagnosis though her name took on new meaning for me.

Carleigh means 'freeholder'. If you are unsure what freeholder means, basically it is one who holds title to real property. While the earthly definition of freeholder can be pretty darn confusing (look it up, it seriously is), I like to think of it as my daughter holds title to a piece of Heaven. Her middle name McKenna means 'ascend'. Of course I like this because I imagine her rising into Heaven to meet Jesus.

And I'd thought I'd let you know the meanings of my other children's names:

Kyndra's name means 'greatest champion' and her middle name Renee means 'reborn'.

Jordan's name means 'flowing down' and his middle name Leigh means 'meadow'.

Hannah's name means 'grace' and her middle name Nicole means 'victory of the people'.