We’ve been calling our baby comfortably by name for months now (our family and closest friends have too!), so I feel 100% secure in moving forward with sharing a little bit about our little girl’s name: Jillian Jamie DeSpain. Jillian!! (Insert a million hearts here because I’m so excited about the reality of our daughter that I just can’t stand it.)
I shared it on Instagram about a month ago and am excited now to share a little bit about how we landed on it, if you’re curious and like these kinds of stories. 🙂
We didn’t start talking about names until after our gender reveal party back in January, but once we knew she was a girl, Jamie and I talked about names constantly! It’s interesting how it worked out this way with all three of our babes.
It’s funny how the “name game” varies so much for couples. Some people have names picked out before their baby is even conceived, while others wait an entire day before they securely settle on a name.
Jamie and I are honestly just alike though in the idea that we need to be able to visualize a son or daughter before we start thinking about giving this human a name. The pressure is real, ya know? Like, this is the name that will be called out in the doctor’s office when he/she is four days old, the name that will be called on stage at their graduations, the name they’ll begin to recite to others when they’re toddlers, and morbidly even the name that will be on a tombstone one day. And we have the power to give this little one a name! I’m not an over thinker or analytical at ALL. 😉
Anyway! We came up with a list of criteria that we wanted or didn’t want for our baby’s name when trying to come up with Hadley’s name in 2013, and we used the same criteria when deciding on Sadie’s and Jillian’s names too.
There was one big addition to the “criteria” list for Jillian though, and that’s that we didn’t want a name that ended in the “E” sound. We felt like Hadley, Sadie, and (i.e.) Millie (a name I have loved for years!) was just a bit too “cutesy” for a trio of sisters. LOL. I ran this idea by some of the people closest to us, and some said that they loved the idea of their names all ending in a common sound, while others 100% agreed with me that it would sound too planned out and “over the top” to have names that all sounded so similar.
And you would not believe how many sweet girl names end up the “E” sound. Gracious! This eliminated a ton of names! So that was tough.
It may have been my mom who initially mentioned Jillian. I can’t remember. It didn’t take long though for both of us to pause over it and admit that we both really liked it. It was one of those “Hey, what about Jillian?” (like we’ve asked each other about a million names). And Jamie’s all “I actually really like it” after a brief pause and I’m like “Me too…” We sat on it for weeks, discussed other names, started throwing it around in conversation by addressing this baby as Jillian, and eventually we did what we did with Hadley and Sadie too: “So is Jillian her name? Are we finalizing this or what?”
Yes. 🙂
As for her middle name, that was pretty easy. We only had two that we ever threw around: a family name and then the name we picked – Jamie. We had already decided months ago that if this baby was a boy, his middle name would be Jamie after his dad. Well, within a few days of finding out it’s a girl, I mentioned keeping “Jamie” as the middle name since it’s a unisex name and spelling. Jamie really liked the idea of his baby girl having his name, and he smiled so big initially just thinking about it. So, the middle name was easy. We love it!
And there ya have it! And know what’s the craziest thing? One of my followers on Instagram sent me a message last month saying that she has two daughters named (get this!)… Sadie Rose and Jillian. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? My mind was blown, lol.
More: Naming Sadie and naming Hadley
Let’s chat!
I’d loooove to know what some of your criteria is/was for naming your bebes!
Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo