All three of my kids first names are derived from at least one of their parents names... and one of their middle names has family connections too...
Robyn Anne was named after her father Robert and her mother Shellie-Anne - she is the only one of my kids without a second middle name... It's interesting because Anne with an 'E' is a tradition, both in Wayne's family and mine - Robyn has an 'Anne' Fan that details the history of Anne going back 5 generations..
Anne is a link between several generations of my family as well... my great grandmother was an Annie, my grandmother is Dorothy Anne, my mother is Judith Anne and I am Heather Anne, and of course Robyn Anne fits right in as my daughter :)
Liam Kenneth Stephen was named after his dad - Wayne William Gordon, but there was already a William in his generation, and Wayne didn't want a junior, so we opted for Liam, which I love! Kenneth is Liam's family connection - it honors his maternal great grandfather - who you can read about here and Stephen is in honor of one of Wayne's mentors and a really great friend - Dr. Stephen L.J. Smith - no relation ;)
Erik's name was a hotly contested and closely guarded secret for much of my pregnancy - Wayne had won earned naming rights (see here for details) by virtue of feeding my need to be a mother again... so the final decision on a first name was his... and despite his dasterdly plan to sell the rights on Ebay, he took suggestions from Robyn and I and we settled on Erik... his name loosely connects to mine through this logic:
My name is Heather - Erika is a German equivalent of Heather, so by naming him Erik, his name is related to mine
His middle names honor his maternal grandfather, Alfred and Reid is the last name of another very special mentor in Wayne's life - Dr. Laurel Reid.
You might think we are neglecting Wayne's side of the family, but both times we found out we were having boys, we asked his dad about using his first or middle name... and he said not to... so we really honor his wishes by not naming our children after him... and the William connection to Liam is actually Wayne's maternal grandfather's name, so his family heritage is honored there too...
How did you name your kids? Do you have any special stories about your own name?
