WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Reposting from my personal blog:Yes, we do give our children some strange names, don't we?
And we let our nerdiness shine through them, as well.

I hope our children appreciate, rather than resent our penchant for giving them unique names.

Anyway, it all started with Leiana Arwen.

I've always loved my middle name, which is Leanne. However, I didn't really want to name my daughter after myself, and I think Derek sort of nixed the idea of "Leanne" anyway. It was a long process of names we liked, names we didn't like, lots of vetos, and I kept coming back to names that start with "L."

I loved the name Leia... but even I am not quite nerdy enough to want to name my child after a Star Wars character. (Okay, okay, I AM that nerdy... but Derek isn't).

I liked the name Leanna, but don't really love the name Anna... so I took Leia, and combined it with Ana, and made up the name Leiana. It means "poetic, lioness, and from the pasture meadow" all of which are nice meanings, which I care about.

Later, I found the name Leiana in a baby-name book and website, so I guess I didn't make it up. It's a real name. Who'd-a-thunk?

Once I had Leiana figured out, I paired it with Arwen. I love that name, it's beautiful, and it means "pure" - which is a good meaning to give to any child. And, bonus, it's a Lord of the Rings name. (Well, I thought it was a bonus. It took a lot of convincing on my part, but eventually Derek agreed that it was pretty, and that naming our child after a character from Lord of the Rings (especially a more obscure character) was okay).

Hence, Leiana Arwen.

Then we had Nathalie Eowyn.

Well, one of my best friends from college is named Nathalie, and both Derek and I really liked the way her name was spelled. I've always liked the name Natalie, but fell in love with it when I saw that extra, totally silent "h." It's the French spelling of the name (and the French do have an eye for beauty), which makes it a bit more dear to my heart as I took French for 4 years in high school and visited Paris in high school as well, where I fell in love with France and French food. The meaning is "born on Christmas" which isn't true of our Nathalie, but hey, anything that references the birth of Christ isn't a bad meaning.

Then, since we'd already started the trend of names out of Tolkien's books, the next logical choice was Eowyn. Her name means either Warrior Princess or Lover of Horses, depending on where you look. I'm okay with both meanings, though I think Warrior Princess fits our Nathalie better. :) We both had to re-read the parts of the books featuring Eowyn to make sure we were okay naming our daughter after her... and decided we were.

So then we had a boy. And we disagreed on pretty much every name out there.

I like names like Kiernan, Orion, Kieran, Hawkins, and Luke (which was already taken by my nephew... and probably a good thing, because I don't think I'd ever live it down if I named my children Lukas and Leiana... because I think people would notice the Star Wars reference a bit too easily).

Derek likes names like Jethro Eisenhauer, Beren, and Leroy.

I'm not sure exactly when we came up with it, or how we realized we both liked it, but we do both like the name Brant. Which means "sword."

Of course, Brant is a character in one of my books - so I wasn't sure I wanted to go there. (Warning to any authors out there... don't use up all your favorite names on your book characters... it will make naming your future children a bit depressing and difficult...)

Also, while Brant Schmidt sounds fine, Brant +any middle name Schmidt just sounds like it's missing something.

So we started tossing the idea around of adding "land." My brother's name is technically Grantland, which is where we got the idea. We both liked it (and we both like my brother) a lot... so... Brantland became our first name choice. And, yes, that makes it a made-up name, technically. However, adding "land" also adds the meaning "from the land of the" so Brantland technically means "from the land of the sword." Which I think is cool and sounds warrior-esque.

Now, of course, the trend was set - and we both knew the middle name had to come from the Lord of the Rings.

I was sold on Brantland Aragorn. But Derek liked Brantland Eomer. (Yes, you can guess who won that argument). The biggest factor that changed my mind (besides the fact that Eomer is again a slightly more obscure character), had to do with the fact that the name "Aragorn" has no meaning - and I like names to have a good meaning. So... Eomer it was - which means "famous horseman," and Eomer and Eowyn were brother-sister in the books, so that's kind of a cool extra-nerdy factor. And besides, Eomer is THE MAN, he's super cool in both the books and the movie. (And I think if I named my son Aragorn, my daddy would never forgive me for NOT naming him Boromir... so Eomer was the safer bet!) hahahahaha


So, there you have it. A bit of insight into our thought process as we bestow upon our children names that they will never find on those snazzy personalized pencil kiosks in the grocery store.

But, hey. I survived. So will they. :)