Behind the Irish names

Today over at Kelly's Korner we are posting about how we came up with our children's names!! One of my favorite topics!! Whoohoo!!

It is no secret all of our children have Irish names...but why you ask? Well, it all started with the naming of our first child. I had heard the name Aidan (from the actor Aidan Quinn...who no one else seemed to know at the time). Anyways, back in 2001 no one else had named their child Aidan..it was an unknown and people (my family) even turned their noses up at the "weird" name. But we were set on the name and the ONLY name we could come up with that sounded good with it, in our opinion, was Riley. AIDAN RILEY...a BEAUTIFUL IRISH name for our firstborn. We had this name picked out early in my pregnancy and it fit him perfectly!!

When we went to name our second child (I already assumed it would be a boy, so we were only coming up with boy names) we were drawn again to Irish names. We found out it was another boy and narrowed down our search for the perfect name. This time we decided to keep the name a secret until he was here...I just couldn't handle it if friends and family made discouraging comments on this name as well. Once our second born entered the world we announced his name....FINLEY PATRICK! While living in Austin we watched every UT football game and there was a player with the last name Finley...I think it really grew on me and then when I saw it in a baby book I realized that it was perfect. We named him Patrick after my hubby (his middle name). I love his name and it still makes me smile every time I say it!

We were blessed with a girl next!!! I never thought that we would have a daughter so I was starting from scratch with names. We had a list but could not decide for a LOOOONG time. Nothing really stuck out...and if I liked it Joey wouldn't. At one point I gave up...I figured something would come to us!! haha!! One day I was cleaning out my desk and was just shoveling paper into the trash can, but I happened to grab one single piece of paper...on it was the name Breslin. That was it, nothing else was on this scrap of paper. The name was in my handwriting, but I DO NOT remember writing it! I went on a baby name website and found that it was an Irish BOY name. Grrr!! But the more I said the name out loud the more I fell in love with it. I decided that we could feminize it (and have a little tribute to my mom) and turn the "I" into a "Y". We had already picked out her middle name as Claire..I'm still IN LOVE with that name. So there we had it....BRESLYN CLAIRE!! We did end up telling people her name and we received mixed opinions, but we honestly didn't care what people thought anymore!! haha!! She fits her unique name just perfectly.

Our fourth AND FINAL child...whom we'll call a BIG FAT SURPRISE is also a boy. I never thought we would have to come up with another name....but decided to get a list going! I was convinced we were having another girl, and we had a name already ready...at least one we liked at the time- Madigan Grace (I would call her Mags for short...SO cute!!). But we ended up with another boy and we struggled for a long time on this name. I had seen a name I liked, but wasn't convinced it was Irish. When I looked it up online each baby naming website would give a different origin! :( But one day while out shopping with my bff, we saw a baby name book and I told her, "If this book says the name is Irish origin, that will be his first name." We slowly flipped it to the name and WAHOOOO!! Owen is Irish!! The middle name was not as easy to decide on. In fact he was approximately an hour old before we finally chose...dun dun dun....Brady!! We had two very precious middle names ready at the helm....Teague...so unique, and Brady...just plain cute! But after much staring at my new baby, I decided that Brady it was. OWEN BRADY was named...finally!! Teehee.

So there ya have it...all my Irish babes in a row!! I wouldn't change any of our choices and love my little kiddos to pieces. Hope you have enjoyed reading our naming adventures!! Teehee!