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name stories

When we introduce our three daughters, people usually think we have a "city theme" or they are all named after places we have been (or maybe people think they are all named after the places they were conceived? ew.) None of those things are true, though the names are meaningful. Here are the true stories of how we came up with our daughters' names!

Tempe Joann
When I was pregnant with Tempe, we chose not to find out what we were having, but we both were convinced it was a boy (as were most of our family members). We were so sure our first child would be a boy that we didn't discuss girl names even in passing. But boy names were a different story... we both wanted different things (Jason wanted Lincoln and I wanted Jonas) and we were still fighting about names in the delivery room. It came as quite a shock when the nurses called out "It's a girl!" Jason served sa two-year mission for our church in the Tempe, Arizona area and we had talked about using Tempe as a name when we were first married. We really didn't discuss her name much--after "he" turned out to be "she", we just settled on Tempe. Joann is for both of our grandmothers--Joanne on my side, Joan (but pronounced Joanne) on Jason's. She also shares the middle name Joann with Jason's sister Corinne! Tempe may seem like a strange name to some, but our little girl is such a Tempe that we couldn't imagine her as anything else!

Helena Louise
I found myself pregnant again when Tempe was just 10 months old. I really wanted to find out the gender this time, so I foolishly told Jason he could name the baby if we found out what it was. Of course he agreed! When we found out baby #2 was another girl, Jason started looking for a name in earnest. I helped him by suggesting everything from Pallas to Betty. He wanted something that was somewhat old-fashioned and he kept coming back to Helena, which we pronounce hel-AY-na. We went to the hospital with four names on his short list--Stella, Eisley, Helena, and Delia--but when she was born, he took one look at her and said "Can we name her Helena?" Helena's middle name, Louise, is after my other grandmother (Peggy Louise) and my only sister (Kelsey Louise).

Juno Kate
When #3 was on the way, I wanted my turn to have supreme naming rights. Jason really wanted a Wii and he finally agreed to give me naming rights so he could get a Wii (win- win, right??) Juno had been my favorite name for years--ever since I was pregnant with Helena and scouring baby naming websites to "help" Jason. Unfortunately, the movie came out three months before Helena was born, so there was no way Jason would even consider the name Juno. But baby #3 was due 3 years after the movie came out, so I was thrilled when we ended up with another daughter because I thought it had been long enough! I didn't want to commit to anything until I had held the baby, so officially I went to the hospital with a few names on a list--Juno, Matilda (Mae), Stella, Violet, Ruby, and Georgia. Unofficially, I knew the baby's name would be Juno and so did everyone else after Helena blurted it out at Disneyland a month before she was born. Even so, I insisted on holding her for an hour before saying for sure that I wanted to name her Juno. Kate is after me (Jason picked it! Isn't that sweet??) and Jason's little sister Katelyn.