Tuesday Tell All: What's in a Name?

Cheryl: When my mom was pregnant with my older brother Greg the girl name they had selected to use was Annette. I think they would have called the baby Annie. When I arrive just 11 1/2 months after Greg made his debut, their tastes had already changed. They both decided they like the name Cheryl. My mom would have preferred to name me Cherylyn, but my dad thought that was too long of a name. They also did not give me a middle name since my mother didn't have a middle name. They knew I could always use my maiden name of Nance throughout my life, which I love!

There are not many Cheryl's out there and I really like that. Every now and then hear of another Cheryl or see it on a name tag of a store employee, but it's fun to be a bit unique. And just for the record I 100% completely prefer the spelling with a "Ch" over an "Sh" any day!

When I was born we lived in the basement of my Great great grandpa Warner's home. He just never got my name right bless his heart. He always called me "CH"eryl with a hard CH sound. So funny.

Since Greg was just a bit older than me and learned to talk while I was around, he struggled with my name. He called me "E-da." No one ever figured out how that tied into Cheryl. Later my dad would call me "E-da Pooh." Get it? Silly, but funny.

Nickname: Cher, Cher Bear

Richard Taylor Jackson III (Trey): Trey's real name is Richard Taylor Jackson III. Yes, he has the same names as his father and grandpa. It has never been confusing since he goes by Trey, my husband goes by Rich and his father goes by Dick.

Here's the run down. Rich's dad has an identical twin brother named Robert. Growing up they went by Dick and Bob. The middle name Taylor is Grandma Mary Ellen Jackson's maiden name (Rich's dad's mom) . Five of the six Jackson sons have Taylor as their middle name. Only the last son was given Grandpa Jackson's unique name- Elvon. When my husband was born they joked about calling him Little Dickie, but thankfully for everyone involved it never stuck.

When I was pregnant with Trey we had decided we liked Kailee (said- Kylie) for a girl and kind of knew if it was a boy we should continue on the tradition of Richard. The only problem was I didn't want a little Richard (obviously!) or two Rich's in the house. We also couldn't use Taylor since Rich's little brother is named Taylor. So Rich started throwing the idea of Trey around. Honestly, I couldn't stand the name. I thought it was quite silly. Who names their kid Trey?! It took me until my 6th month of pregnancy to say the name Trey without laughing. When I was at work and people would ask about the baby's name and I said Trey, they would ask what's the story, why? I didn't think this was a good sign. Once when a drug rep came in I simply told him the baby's name was Josh. It cut out the questions.

When Trey arrived, I knew it was a great name. It fit him and I totally, absolutely love the name now. It works. It's him. I think that's the beauty of names. No matter what you think, it will become the person. It's like a magical thing. So Trey it is and always will be. Of course he had to know his real name was Richard early on since they would call it at doctor's appointments, but they seem to have spots for nicknames on school sign ups, so they never get mixed up and write Richard all over his papers.

It's wonderful to have such a rich history in a name and a blessing to share the name Richard with such good and honorable men. I hope he can be as great as they both are. I know he will be.

Nickname: Trey Dogg, Trey Man

Second Pregnancy: When I was seven weeks along I slipped into my dad's office to have heart beat check. My mom put the phones on hold and came in to take a peek and to hold Trey on her lap (he was only 14 months old). A few moments later I discovered something I never dreamed would happen to me: I was having twins. What a shocker! I called Rich on the phone and let's just say he was speechless. Since we had a tough time deciding on girl names, we waited to really talk about names until we found out the genders. At eighteen weeks we found out we would be having 2 more boys. What fun!

Joshua Nance: When Rich attended at BYU basketball camp before his senior year in high school (1990) he met a nice guy from Clovis, California name Josh Madsen. They hit it off and became friends but didn't see him until spring break 1991. In between they had mutual friends (The Seamsons) and had kept Rich up to date on Josh's life. Rich saw Josh from a distance at a BYU basketball game when Josh was on his football recruiting trip at BYU. Rich then assumed Josh would be going to BYU on a football scholarship. Later they both discovered they had independently chosen to attend Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

Rich went straight on his mission to New Zealand after his senior year, while Josh attended his freshman year at Stanford and then went on his mission to Mexico. When they both returned they were roommates until Josh got married to his high school sweetheart Tiffany Stoker and we got married nine months later.

Josh was Rich's best friend through college and when Josh was accepted to the University of Louisville Medical School in 1999, he opened the door for Rich as well. We soon followed their lead and moved to Louisville in December 2000. Josh was one year ahead of Rich and matched for at U of L for his anesthesia residency so we shared over six years together in the 'Ville until we moved to Lexington for Rich's residency here at UK.

My Joshua is named Joshua because of Rich's wonderful friend. (Though I had a good laugh when a few years ago discovered Josh's real name until he was 1 or 2 was actually Jared. Crazy huh! His parents just thought Josh fit him better or so the story I heard was told.) Josh Madsen has been there for so much of our lives. He and Tiffany flew out for our wedding, has been in the circle in 4 of our 5 children's blessings and our hearts are breaking that they will soon be headed back to Clovis. They will be missed. It's wonderful to have my Josh know Josh Madsen so well. We call them "Big Josh" and "Little Josh". Perfect.

Josh's middle name is my maiden name. I wanted him to have part of me and my family legacy to keep throughout his life.

Nickname: Joshy (though I'll throw in a Poshy on the end, but I don't think he'd like me to repeat that to any of his friends!)

Matthew Nance: Matthew has always been my favorite boy name my entire life. I disliked my boy Cabbage Patch Doll's original name so I renamed him Matt. I also think most of my Ken dolls were called Matt too.

I never met a Matt I didn't like. My little brother Kurt's middle name is Matthew. We lived next door to cute Matt Swenson who I thought was so fun and nice growing up (and still is). It was just a great name.

Since Rich had more of a say in our first 2 boys' names I chose the name Matthew. I couldn't have been more thrilled. It was what I has always wanted.

As for which twin, got their assigned name it was quite easy. We had picked out the name Josh first, so decided that baby A would be Josh and Baby B would be Matt. The boys stayed in their set places in my womb for a long time, so I knew where Josh was and could always feels Matt's head on the side on my stomach. It was wonderful to feel like they were separate little babies even before they arrived. And I'll tell you the names are perfect. Josh should be Josh and Matt should be Matt. It's just that simple.

Matt also has my maiden name of Nance. I wanted them both to be the same and have that part of me forever.

Nicknames: Matt Matt, Midnight Matt (though he HATES Matty- he thinks it sounds like Maddie which of course is a girl's name.)

Third pregnancy: Even before I had a positive pregnancy test, I knew I was pregnant. I felt pregnant even before I missed my period and I really, truly thought I was having twins again. My store bought pregnancy test read positive days before I missed my period, my stomach was really bulging and I was really sick. I had NEVER been sick before. So I KNEW I was having at least one girl. Really, there was no doubt in my mind. Just days after I took the test, I told my mom and dad I was pregnant. Not long after that I told them I knew it was twins again. My dad said no way. My mom worried I would have triplets. My dad thought we were both crazy! I just hoped 2 would be all. I couldn't imagine having 3 babies at once.

I went to my first doctor's appointment and she told me no worries, I wasn't having twins. I didn't believe her. She was wrong. I called the office back and told them for my mental sanity I needed an ultrasound. I had to know. Later that week I went in and told the receptionist I was there to rule out twins, but I knew that wouldn't be the case. They all gasp the minute they put the probe on my belly. There were clearly 2 babies. I was vindicated. And I knew they were girls. At 18 weeks we saw not one girl, but two. Mother's do know best!

Brynn and Kaitlyn: We had always struggled with girl names. We never even discussed any when we had the boys since we found out their gender early on. I had always loved the name Sydney, but Rich nixed that long ago.

When we found out we were having two girls the though of coming up with two names was hard. The prospect of finding four names we could agree on (if we gave them middle names) was impossible.

Rich liked the name Rachel. It was his paternal great grandmother's name. I just couldn't see past Jennifer Aniston's character on Friends. Plus there is no way I could pick just one of our grandma's names to use. I am so close with all 5 of them that are living. I just couldn't make one of them feel bad. Each women is remarkable and lovely and while any child would be blessed to be named after them, it just wasn't feasible.

So we got out a name book and started going down the list. I liked Sydney, Lauren and Ellie. He could only come up with Rachel. One of us read Kaitlyn. We both said that was a nice name. It was a possibility.

As for Brynn the first time I ever remember hearing the name was in the news about Brynn Hartman- Phil Hartman the actor's wife. Though they have an absolutely horrible story, I remember thinking that I really liked the name Brynn. Then in 2005 Rich's brother married a darling girl named Brynn. She is lovely and sweet and made me love the name even more. After a bit more brief discussions with Rich he said he liked the name. I made a phone call to "Big Little Brynn" as we call her (she's too tiny to call her Big Brynn!) and made sure she was fine with us using her name. No problem.

I have to put in here though we only discussed girls names for a few hours. Really. Rich was a general surgery intern, was on call every 3rd night (and every other night for a few months) from July 05- June 06 and he simply was not around much at all. His life was crazy and talking baby names just didn't happen. Though we had discussed that we like the names Brynn and Kaitlyn I was still trying to talk him into Sydney instead of Kaitlyn or even Lauren. I wasn't sold. I wasn't sure how to spell Kaitlyn either. There are so many options.

I went on bed rest around 28 weeks and truthfully didn't want to buy any baby things at all or really bond with these babies early in the pregnancy in case something dreadful happened. I know that sounds awful, but I was a nervous wreck hoping that everything would be OK on our second round of twins.

I went into labor just days before I hit the 36 week mark. We still weren't set on names. Rich was still saying Rachel. At least for a middle name. I didn't want to give the girls middle names. I told him he could use Rachel if I could use Larsen (my mom's maiden name). He didn't think that would work. I still wanted Sydney while Rich still wasn't totally sure about Brynn.

And then which baby should get which name? This was a problem. I finally decided that Brynn was set. I decided to name Baby A Brynn since she was always so much smaller than Baby B. It just seemed to fit. I also like that it would be alphabetical. That meant Baby B would be Kaitlyn.

Even as I filled out the birth certificates I was unsure. It was just so hard to know if we had chosen the right names. When Kaitlyn was a few months old, I was questioning if I spelled it right or if I should have named her Sydney. Rich said I could change the spelling if I wanted, but we weren't going to change her name. After talking to my mom one day, she said that she didn't totally love my youngest brother's name Rhett at first. They already had 4 sons with one syllable names. They didn't want to break the trend so they picked Rhett. She said it grew on her, he became Rhett and now she loves it. I knew that was true. I had lived it myself with Trey. The name Kaitlyn was perfect, just the way it was and I haven't regretted it since.

Brynn's Nickname: Brynnie Brynn, Mini Brynnie, Beautiful

Kaitlyn's Nickname: As a baby I started calling her Katelino which later turned into Leaner. Silly, I know. Thankfully neither name lasted. I just call her Beautiful, Pretty or Kaitlyn. My brother Brad thinks I should call her Katidid, but I dislike the name Katie, so I have never used it. It seems like I need to be coming up with something clever for my sweet (but sometimes just a little bit mean) baby girl.

*One funny note- not long ago my dad had a patient come in that had 2 girls named Brynn and Kaitlyn. What are the odds?