Saturday, October 3, 2009

What's in a name?

I've had several questions about how we came up with Caroline Harper, so I thought I'd share. We literally went back and forth on her name until we saw her, but now that she's a whole week old I think it's perfect (if I do say so myself!).

Caroline is a family name on both sides which we thought was a win-win. First, my maiden name is Carroll and we thought Caroline was a great way to pass that on. Secondly, I had a great-grandmother who's middle name was Caroline, and it was Dan's great-grandmother's first name. We also recently learned that Dan's mom (Karee) was actually named after her grandmother Caroline who went by that name. See - so many good reasons :) Plus, we just thought it was beautiful from the beginning. It feels a bit big for a baby, but I'm quite confident that she'll grow into it.


Harper is really just a name that we fell in love with. We had considered it for a first name but Dan was never quite convinced on that one. Harper Lee is the author of the classic "To Kill a Mockingbird" - one of my all-time favorite books with a beautiful message of justice, innocence, and the importance of doing what is right regardless of the consequences (it's hard to boil that book down into a sentence). It just seemed like a worthy name by that account - and something a bit unique. And Dan just wouldn't go for the name Scout :)


So there you have it - Caroline Harper. We hope she likes it someday!

4 comments:

jenny said...

I love it as well. We just had good friends have a baby named Harper Katherine. I hadn't even thought of Harper, and then this is the third time I've heard it since June! Love it. They also named her after Harper Lee. :-) And of course, we love Caroline. I never even equated it with Carroll, but it's perfect! Such a sweetie!

Katie said...

So what WAS the other name you were debating?

Anonymous said...

So cool! I had wondered about Caroline, but immediatly thought of "To Kill a Mockingbird" when I heard Harper. You always did perk up in English class when it was the time of the year to read that, and did always over achieve with the projects associated with it! :) Hope all is well...she is just beautiful, looks so much like her mother!

Kandi

Mama Mote said...

I love her name and I love your reasons. I didn't know that about Karee...even as long as I've known her. That's cool! Well, she is a beauty and you both did good with the names. Although, Scout??? Hmmm, I might actually go to a celebrity gathering and meet the actual Scout if I decide to go with Liz. That would be kind of fun to meet her.