The Name Game

Joe and I had been thinking long and hard about baby names before knowing if CP was going to be a girl or a boy. Boy names had stumped us from the beginning, but we had narrowed down to three. Girl names, we had narrowed down to two before we even got pregnant. When I was in high school, I worked at a daycare in the baby room. One of the little girl's name was Ellisyn. I fell in love with the name, and she was my favorite in the "class." Ellisyn went to the top of my baby name list and stayed there for 10 years. Then, when Joe and I were looking for wedding stationary, I saw the name Hadley Tate on some cards in the store. I fell in love with the name immediately. As friends and family members were having babies and choosing names, Joe and I talked a lot about baby names. I'd told him from the get go what names I liked for a girl and he liked them both as well. So, we decided if CP was a girl, she would either be Ellisyn Grace or Hadley Tate. Beyond that, we didn't want to narrow down to one boy's name or one girl's name.

When I saw CP on the screen during our ultrasound, I just knew that we had to go with the name Ellisyn. After our appointment, we went out to run a couple of errands and then went to dinner at Carraba's. While running errands, Joe told me that when he saw CP, he knew she was a Hadley. So, we discussed over dinner and doodled the names on paper to see what we liked best. By 20 minutes into dinner, we had decided to morph the two into Hadley Grace. And, if I were completely honest, I'd admit to you that our waiter that night helped us decide on Hadley as well. Plus, we got a free dessert. But, that is neither here nor there! CP had a name! We called our parents and let them know that Cocoa Puff had become Hadley Grace.
We've known Hadley as Hadley for about 6 weeks now, and it is so strange to think we ever called her something different. The days of calling the baby Cocoa Puff seem like a life time ago!

Here are some name "facts;"
Hadley means (Old English) "from the heatherfield" ---not a great meaning, but we loved the name
Hadley is currently not on any of the most popular name lists (that we have found), although we do run across people who claim to know a Hadley from time to time. I think it will increase in popularity over the next 5 years.
Grace means grace. Pure and simple.... Grace is on several lists as being one of the top 100 girl names.