Baby Girl's Name

From the moment I saw our baby girl on the screen at her gender ultrasound, I called her by her name. Why I have kept it a secret on my blog for so long, I have no idea. I guess I didn't want to just start calling her by her name publicly without explaining the reasoning behind her name. Ok, that makes it sound like there is some fantastic story or significance behind her name and there really isn't. We just happen to like it.

When we started trying to get pregnant two years ago, we discussed baby names. Over time, we came up with some different options that we liked, but after becoming pregnant we narrowed it down to one boy and one girl name that we liked best. Even though I really liked both of these names, I was reluctant to commit to any names until I saw how I felt after the gender ultrasound. I was shocked at how quickly I committed to our girl's name at the ultrasound. I expected myself to want to think about it and mull it over for a while after the ultrasound before making a commitment to a name. However, as I watched her on the ultrasound screen in that moment, I knew right away that this was the only name that fit her. Presenting the name of our future little miss...

Now, on to the significance of these names. There really is no deeper meaning or reason for choosing the name Peyton. Yes, it is spelled like Peyton Manning, but no she is not named after him. However, if I was going to name my daughter after a football player, it probably would be him. I like Peyton Manning, he's a good guy. We just happen to like the name a lot and I like how it flows with the middle name and our last name. For some reason, it just feels right. I can't explain it.

The middle name, Brooke, does have a little significance for me and a fun story behind it. When I got married, I dropped my own middle name and took my maiden name as my new middle name. I was a little sad about this because I always loved my middle name. Therefore, I decided to pass my beloved middle name on to my daughter. When my mom was pregnant with me, my brother was in pre-school and had this girlfriend (yes, my brother had a girlfriend in Pre-K. If you know my brother, this will not surprise you at all). Her name was Brooke. When he asked my mom what she was going to name the new baby, she told him "Jaclyn Nicole". The name Jaclyn "Jacki" was in honor of her brother Jack "Jackie" who passed away when he was 12, and Nicole was just a name that she liked. My brother responded by telling her that he wanted me to be named Brooke. When she told him that she was definitely going to name me Jacki, he responded by saying that she should name me Brooke or that maybe he wouldn't like me. Of course, every parent worries about how their first child will react to bringing another baby into the family. My brother was pretty adamant about this name thing, so rather than risk us getting off to a rocky start, my mom compromised. And that is how I became "Jaclyn Brooke". I always loved my middle name and since that story is a big joke in our family, I wanted the legacy to live on. So one day, Peyton can tell this ridiculous story about how she got her middle name from her Uncle Chris.

We all know how obsessed I am with monogramming everything, so you better believe that I took Peyton's monogram into consideration when choosing her name. Yes, it is sheer coincidence that her initials are PBR, and even though PBR is one of my favorite beers, I did not do that on purpose. However, I kind of like that little coincidence because those initials do have a deeper meaning for me personally. After I turned 21, I finally began to fully understand what was really going on with my dad. My entire life, I always saw him as my awesome dad who just liked to have fun. I never realized that he actually was an alcoholic and that he truly had some problems until I started having a real adult relationship with him. I think he tried really hard to shield me and protect me from what was going on because he didn't want me to think badly of him. Many of our real, honest, adult moments together over the last couple years were shared over a beer, and PBR was our favorite one to enjoy together. We always joked about how PBR was our special thing just between the two of us and no one else wanted to drink it with us because it was gas station beer and that it helped us get back in touch with our redneck roots. Anytime I see one of those tallboy cans, I can't help but think about him. Looking back, I cherish all those moments that we shared over a can of PBR. Some of them were important and some of them were just silly fun, but for some reason those particular moments stand out in my mind so vividly. While I hope to pass many things down to Peyton that I learned from my dad and while these initials aren't a direct connection to him for her, it is a special memory that is significant only to me and I will just keep that to myself. Yes, I realize that this sounds completely ridiculous and that I probably shouldn't honor my alcoholic father with a beer reference, but you would have to fully understand our relationship in order to know why this works for me; however, there is no way I could even begin to explain that, so you'll just have to trust me on this one. Honestly, this little connection isn't something that I actually planned on sharing with the world because I thought people would think I was crazy and a bad mom for allowing my daughter's initials to reference a beer. Like I said though, it really is a coincidence and it wasn't until after we feel in love with the name that I actually made the connection. Plus, the letters will be in a different order in her monogram anyways so no one will even notice. But I'll know, and that's all that matters. Bottom line, every time I look at Peyton's initials, I think of my dad and I smile.

So there it is, the story behind our baby girl's name. Feel free to start calling her Peyton and sending her monogrammed gifts...just kidding...ok, maybe not :)