:: Name ::

if you follow me on Instagram, then not only have you already seen this picture of the kiddos feeling our baby girl for the first time, but you already know the name we have chosen:

i mentioned in our gender announcement that we had already chosen a name for our baby girl, but that we were debating the spelling. after the Hubs did a little bit of research to convince me (i’ll tell you how he did it in a minute) i was sold! so now that we are sure, i thought i’d share it with you. i debated for a mili-second on keeping it a secret until she was born, but i’m not good at keeping things secretive, and we love to call her by her name, so i didn’t think i could go another 4-5 months just referring to her as “Little Lump.” so here you have it…Baby Girl’s name:

i LOVE names, and we pondered long before i was even preggo what we would name a 3rd if we ever had one. i kept a running list of our favorites. (and just for kicks…if she had been a boy, we had decided on Beckett Silas.)

the only requirements we had when choosing her name were that we preferred for it to be 2 syllables (we thought that sounded best with Canaan and Bella), to be unique, and to serve as some kind of reminder to our family. i love unique names. Canaan is still my favorite boy’s name i’ve ever heard, and i’ve only heard of very few others that share his name. his middle name is Christian, which is Jake’s middle name. His name is a constant reminder to us of God’s Promises. just as He promised the Israelites that He would bring them into the Promised Land (Canaan) so too can we trust in the faithfulness of our God to fulfill His Promises to us.

we chose Bella long before it became so mainstream, so although its not as unique anymore, it still fits her well. her middle name is Grace, so her name literally means “Beautiful Gift of God.” her name is a reminder to us of God’s beautiful, undeserved gift of grace that He bestows on us, His Children.

although the meaning of the name Berkeley is “a field of heather,” we chose it mainly because we loved the sound, and because it is not a name that you hear all that often. her middle name, however, is a reminder that can live with a Confident Expectation (Hope) that God will do all that He’s promised. the main thing that our family talks about as we talk about Hope is the Hope of Heaven. we can confidently expect that God is making all things new, and that we will one day live in perfection with our Father for all of eternity. that Hope changes the way we live in our day to day. Berkeley Hope will remind us of a Greater Hope that is to come.

the only thing we debated was the spelling for about a day, and Canaan took it upon himself to take a little poll of some of our family and friends:

i was initially leaning towards dropping the middle “E” and spelling it Berkley, but spellcheck kept correcting it, and we figured more people might know the true spelling of Berkeley because of the city and school in California. and then, Jake did a little googling, and showed me the following items for sale, and i was sold!

i about flipped out over the cuteness and the amount of things we could purchase for her, and that was all it took to help us seal the deal on the spelling. i also found these and thought how fun it would be to have C and B wear them to the hospital when she’s born.

nothing has been purchased quite yet, but i’m sure Berkeley will have no shortage of personalized things to wear!

i’m coming back later this week with some new clean eating recipes that you’ll love! so check back in later,