What's In A Name?

A month or so ago, I promised some Facebook friends that I would write about how each of our children were named.  So this is it!    I've always been fascinated with names ...their meanings ...family traditions ...how names are chosen ...baby-naming trends ...

Our children have always reveled in the idea that each of them has a name with a bit of a story to go along with it.  

My kids:  Aubrey, Leslie, Kyle, and Maria

In order to tell the story of our eldest child, Maria, first I have to tell you the story of MY name.  You see, the two stories are tied together!

The Story of My (Paula's) Name

I'm the youngest of five children and the only girl.  When my parents were expecting their first baby, there was no such thing as ultrasounds.  They picked out two names - Richard and Paula - and anxiously awaited the birth.  It was a boy, and they were thrilled!  Two years later, they were looking forward to a sibling for Rich.  This time the choices were - Ronald or Paula.  It was another boy!  Fantastic!  Two little brothers just two years apart!  Three years later, Mom was pregnant again.  The chosen names were - Stephen and Paula.  Once again, they brought a baby boy home from the hospital!  And finally, four years later, the family would add another.  Surely this time it would be a girl, right?  But just in case, they were prepared with names for either gender - James or Paula.  The baby arrived, just a day after Dad's birthday!  And wouldn't you know it, it was another boy!  

Well, that was that.  My parents were done having babies.  The four Ludwig brothers were as close as any siblings could be.  What more could they want?  Well ... apparently there was something more that they wanted.  Every night, at the dinner table, they would pray for a baby sister.  My parents would just shake their heads and snicker silently.  

The thing is ... God DOES answer prayers!  And so, seven years after James was born and sixteen long years since the name of Paula was thought up, my parents found out that they would have another child.  Now by this time, my mom had become a little tired of the name Paula.  She really wanted to name me Maria.  But Dad was insistent!  "We have stuck by that name for sixteen years and, by golly, if it's a girl we are naming her Paula!"  As a small compromise, they decided my middle name would be Marie.  And so ... that is how I came by my name!

My brothers adoring little ol' me!  Ron, Jim, Rich, and Steve below.

The Story of Maria's Name

As a little girl growing up, I heard the previous story a lot.  I loved the story and could just imagine my big brothers all sitting around the dinner table, heads bowed in prayer while Mom and Dad would secretly look at each other, both thinking, "Absolutely not!  Four kids is enough!"  Funny thing is, I fixated on a different part of that story.  When I found out that I might have been named Maria, I became enamored with the name.  Why, oh why couldn't my mother have convinced my dad to name me Maria?  And so, for as long as I can remember, all my dolls were named Maria.  When I played "house" and I was the mom, whoever was my little girl would have to agree to be called Maria.  

As I grew up, I fantasized about being a mother.  I realized that whoever I married would either have to like the name Maria or at least be okay with the idea of letting me choose the name!  Luckily, Dan seemed to like the name and had no argument with naming our first daughter Maria. 

Newborn Maria Lynn Naden

A funny side note about Maria's name:  I was teaching 4th grade back in 1988 when I was pregnant with Maria.  I told my class the name we had picked out if we were to have a girl.  One of my students got a confused look on her face and timidly raised her hand.  When I called on her, she said, "But you can't name her Maria.  She won't have dark skin."  This child's only experience with that name were of people of Latino ethnicity! 

  
The Story of Leslie's Name

My first college roommate was a wonderful gal named Leslie Flannigan.  We were opposites in a lot of ways, but OH BOY did we have fun together!  She was there when I met Dan and the three of us ended up doing all kinds of crazy things together.  At the end of the first semester of college she ended up transferring to KU.  We stayed close for awhile going to each others weddings but eventually lost contact.  

When Dan and I started talking about names for our 2nd child, we both brought up the name Leslie as a suggestion.  We not only really liked the name, but it was associated with some great memories and a good friend.  It was an easy to agree on choice!

Newborn Leslie Jenae Naden

A few years later we would reconnect with Leslie Flannigan.  She was so surprised and honored to hear that we had named our daughter after her!  


The Story of Kyle's Name

Dan has two older brothers and no sisters.  You already know how I have four brothers.  It's a wonder that we had any daughters at all!  Even more astounding that we ended up with more girls than boys!  Many people are not aware that Dan had a younger brother who came along when Dan was 8.  His name was Kyle.  He was a perfectly healthy baby, but when he was about 3 months old he developed a fever.  The only thing available back in the early 70's to give infants with fevers was aspirin.  Shortly after giving Kyle the baby aspirin, he started getting worse instead of better.  They took him to the hospital, but the doctors couldn't seem to do anything as each of his organs started shutting down.  He died within a few days.  At that point, not many doctors knew much about Reye's syndrome.  It wouldn't be until 1980 that the CDC warned about the connection of baby aspirin and Reye's syndrome.  No one knows for sure if Kyle had Reye's syndrome since Dan's parents didn't even know about it until 10 years later, but Dan's mom told me once that she thinks that's what happened.  

The first Kyle Naden, born Nov. 13, 1970

Dan and I decided that if we were to have a boy, we would name him Kyle.  It would be a way to honor and remember a precious little baby that no one got to know very well or see grow up.  Because we named our son Kyle, our children knew about an "Uncle Kyle" who they never met but was smiling down on them from heaven!

Newborn Kyle Daniel Naden and me

The Story of Aubrey's Name

Since I had more of a say in naming our first two girls, I told Dan that if we had another girl, he could name her.  Dan was convinced that our last child would be a girl.  When we were engaged and talking about having a family, we had decided that four kids would be a great number.  Dan predicted way back then that we would have two girls, a boy, and another girl.  While I was pregnant with Aubrey I almost hoped it would be a boy just to prove him wrong.  But of course that didn't happen, and Dan has been rather smug about it to this day!

Dan was a big fan of a popular rock music group called Bread.  They had a song called "Aubrey" that he had always loved.  After hearing the song, how could I argue?  It was so beautiful.  You can listen to it by clicking on the link below:

Aubrey by Bread

We decided to add Anna as a middle name.  That was Dan's mother's first name (although she always went by her middle name of Darlene). 

 

Newborn Aubrey Anna Naden