Eman Avner

So, most of you all know we're expecting baby boy number three, right? And time's tickin' by pretty fast to where before you know it, he'll be here. It's about time for those Mesarch's to come up with another one of their crazy, meaningful names. Most of you know our methodology for naming our kids, but for those of you who don't here's the scoop:

In case you haven't noticed, Jasper has a unique name for the area and time he was born. That's because his mom, didn't want her kids to have the same situation she did growing up of being the 4th or 5th Susan (or other popular name) in the class. That's totally cool, and even though Sue's not a big fan of her name (I think it's lovely and that's one of the reason's it was popular--you know this already, right Sue?) the names that are popular are so for a good reason! Well, Jasper's enjoyed having a unique name and he's always wanted to name his kids that way too.

I'm for unique, too. I don't think I would have named my kids quite the level of uniqueness that they have had I not married Jasper, though. Holly is certainly normal, but wasn't popular at the time, so I rarely, if ever, run into other Holly's that have remained close to me, ya know what I mean? (I think you might be the only one, Hollie) My mom wanted her childrens names to be meaningful which is something I've valued in my own name, and so that's a big goal in my part of naming our kiddos. (Side note: she also tried to give her kids names that wouldn't have nicknames, which she came to realize is impossible. I've got a bajillion nicknames as do ALL my siblings. There are people like Sawyer from LOST too, who'll make up nick names no matter WHAT!)

So between those two criteria, our options are very limited, and we have to be super creative. Kai's name means "safe place from the storm", Varick's name means "honorable defender of the exalted father" and Eman's name (Eman being derived from Emmanuel) means "father of light with us." I cannot TELL you the amount of compromise is involved with our kids' names! It's not easy, lemme tell ya! So please, don't fall in love with the name Eman, and tell everyone to name their kids that, so that we won't feel like we've failed in acheiving our goal of uniqueness. Just kidding, well, sort of. Not that we're saying you'd ever DO something like that. We'll understand if you can't resist though, I mean, we DO the love ourselves, so why wouldn't everyone else? :)