what's in a name?

joseph goodlet

"what's in a name? a rose which we would call by any other name would smell as sweet..." 

william shakespeare 'romeo and juliet'

it took us a really long time to name baby joseph. a long time. with madeline it was so easy - i had always wanted to name my daughter madeline, and her middle name came easily with our friend beth who had introduced us - but boys names were much harder. we had joked numerous times whilst i was pregnant with madeline that it was lucky we were having a girl as we just could not agree on a boys name. it was impossible - and it proved to be so again this time around.

in the end, family love won out and we decided to name our little boy after our paternal grandfathers - joseph goodlet and evan kendall. grandad joe and i were very close and i have always loved the name, whereas dougs dad has always told him that he wished he had have named him evan after his father as they were so alike - so it was a win for the middle name.

with further research we discovered that joseph means "a gift from god" and evan "a young warrior" both qualities that i am very happy for our little one to bear. i also love joseph for the amount of times it appears in the writings of the prophets, the scriptures - obviously playing a huge part in our religion especially with our first latter-day prophet being a joseph.

he is already being called plenty of nicknames, baby joey, joe, jojo and from big sister maddie - jofis. i am sure she'll learn to say it eventually. 

we are so proud of the name he bears and hope that he can make these two men who were such a huge part of his parents lives, proud to call him their great-grandson. they may have passed on, but we know they will be watching him and cheering him on from the sidelines.

p.s. the bit i love the most? joseph in samoan is quite a common name - iosefa, and the nickname is seffa. classic - and even funnier if you have seen sione's wedding

and

madeline's next door neighbour (in the books) is a little boy called pepito whose father is the spanish ambassador. pepito in english is... yep you guessed it - joseph! :)

evan douglas kendall 

what's in a name?

so... where did her name come from?

my favourite book as a kid - madeline -

about the little french girl that lived in the orphanage...

"in an old house in paris, that was covered in vines

lived 12 little girls in two straight lines

in two straight lines they broke their bread,

brushed their teeth and went to bed

they smiled at the good and frowned at the bad

and sometimes they were very sad

they left the house at half past nine

in rain - or shine

the smallest one

was madeline

so i guess it makes it even better that she is teeny tiny - too small to even fit a 0000!

and the beth... mine and doug's friend - the one that introduced us - all those years ago - miss beth fuggle, totally in our opinion deserving of a mention... cause without her - none of this would have been possible.

what's in a name??

i have to share this - cause i thought it was the cutest thing ever

sandra at work, has a sister clare - who has just given birth to the most beautiful little boy

isaac william

and where did the name come from?

well... we were throwing names around when she was 8 1/2 months preggers and sandra was getting frustrated beacuse she hadn't chosen one yet... the only thought was zac - which meh... i don't like all that much... i commented "i like isaac... -it's my brothers name... i'm just not into the name zac"

the name was suggested - and here he is - inadvertedly named after my big brother!!

let's just hope he doesn't take after him - he'd be a terror!!