Posts in category: Personal

One of the things I loved doing when I was pregnant with my children was curling up with my collection of baby name books and searching for inspiration.

I know some people are certain before they even fall pregnant what their children’s names will be, but I really had no idea.

And there are so many things to consider when you choose a name.

• Does it sound ‘right’ with your surname?
• Do the initials spell out anything dodgy?!
• Is it the name of someone you love, that you want to name your child after?
• Does it have a particular meaning that you love?

That last point was quite a big one for me.

Quite a few names were ruled out because the meaning wasn’t right.

In the end with our first child we narrowed it down to three choices by the time he was born – Morgan, Benjamin and Rhys.

As soon as I saw him I knew his name wasn’t Morgan.  So we were left with two options.  Benjamin, which is a family name on my husband’s side, and Rhys.

It took about a week of getting to know him, and of trying out the two names before we finally settled on Rhys.  It felt right.

And now 5 years later I’m certain we made the right choice as his name suits him perfectly, right down to its meaning – enthusiasm and ardour.

Those two words describe our son perfectly.

In fact, his reception class teacher used the word ‘enthusiastic’ to describe him again and again last year!

He is full of life, passionate about so many things, and has almost boundless energy.

I wonder, would he be the same child had we named him Morgan?!

When I was pregnant the second time round we thought things might be a bit easier.

We knew we were having a girl, and having given Rhys a Welsh name we knew we wanted to do the same for our daughter.

And a lot of names were ruled out because pronunciation would be an issue, for both me and my family – Blodeuwedd anyone?!

Then quite early on in the pregnancy I saw the name Bethan in one of the baby name books and fell in love with it.  It sounded good with our surname, and it went well with Rhys.

As the weeks went on though, I think I said it to myself too much, and that combined with a meaning that didn’t quite ‘speak’ to me (the name is derived from Elizabeth, meaning pledged to God), meant that by the end of the pregnancy I really felt that Bethan wasn’t her name.

So, we were left a bit stumped.  Until I went into the hospital to have her, and the midwife came in and said, “Hi, my name’s Nerys”

Nerys.

We just hadn’t considered that name at all.  But by the time baby girl was a few hours old I was certain she was a Nerys.  And, like her brother, the older she gets the more she suits her name.

It’s derived from the Welsh word for lady, and while she isn’t a delicate little thing (bless her!), she is already so much more of a girly girl than I expected!  She is drawn to shoes, and handbags, jewellery and sparkly things, and she loves having her hair put up in hairbands and clips.

My little lady.

I really do love how well our children’s names suit them, and how they seem to fit them more and more as they get older.  I hope they like them as they grow up too, we really did take care making sure we picked the right names!

Did you factor in the meaning of your child’s name when you chose it?  Did you always know what name you would pick, or did it take a while for the right name to come to you?

For some reason, all four of us were disturbed in the early hours the other night.

Steve and I were both tossing and turning, and then the children took it in turns to shout out and need attention.  And after getting up to see to them, I couldn’t get straight back to sleep, so I grabbed my phone to see what was going on in the world.

And I saw the news about Nice.

And my tired mind couldn’t make sense of it.  And in the morning, I still couldn’t make sense of it.

And now, days later, I’m realising that there just is no making sense of it.  There is no getting your head around this.  All this violence, and hate, and pain.

I’m seeing people try though.  I’ve read various posts from people expressing their feelings about it.  Most of them have brought me to tears.

The ones that upset me the most though, are the ones from people who seem to be losing hope.  The ones where people are in a state of despair about the world they’ve brought their children into.

I understand the desire to hold our children that bit closer when something like this happens.  It’s our nature to want to protect them.  To do whatever we can to keep them safe.

And I understand how terrifying it is to think that we might not be able to protect them, that nowhere is really safe ‘out there’ any more.

But, the thing is, I still believe that this world is inherently good, that it really is a wonderful place.

I believe there is a hell of a lot more love out there than hate.

And I believe that us parents have got a huge job to do now.  

It’s on us to raise our children to be open-minded people.

It’s on us to teach them that, no matter what a person’s religion, race, physical appearance, we’re all human, we’re all the same underneath it all.

And it’s on us to show them that love will always, always win.

My heart aches for the people who are hurting, but I can’t let the pain win.  We can’t let the evil few win.

So please, don’t be defeated.  Don’t hide away.  Don’t stop living life.  Don’t regret bringing children into this world.

Our children are here and they need to know that there is still so much good out there.  That there is so much to see, so many wonderful people to meet.

We just need to keep teaching them, there is always hope and there is always love.