What's in a Name?

I know of many parents who have a hard time coming up with a name for their baby, but for us, it was a really easy process. Around the time Mike and I were talking about starting a family, my beloved grandmother, passed away. I knew then that if we had a baby girl, I would name her after my grandmother. Little did I know that when I attended her funeral, I was already pregnant. So that's how our baby got her name, Virginia Grace- Virginia after my grandma and Grace because it's a beautiful name that means God's blessing.


My mom said that it was love at first sight between my grandmother and me. So much so that my grandmother was my constant companion the first 8 years of my life. She was my roommate. I remember when I was really little, even if it was in the middle of the night and she would only leave the bed to go to the bathroom, I followed her. I would sit on the bathroom scale and wait for my grandma (kinda weird, but true). I remember my friends not liking my grandmother very much because if they were over at my house and it ran into nap time, she would tell them it was time to go home. This happened until I was 8 years old. I also wouldn't spend a night at friends' houses because I felt bad that my grandma wouldn't have her roommate. I remember she would make me the most amazing breakfasts, my favorite being champorado (chocolate rice porridge). I remember going to daily 7:00am mass with her in Korea, sometimes trudging through the snow to get to church. I have so many more memories of her that it would be a very long blog entry indeed if I tried to list them all. These are just a few of my favorites. Oh, and smiles! She was always smiling! The only time we were separated was when my family moved to Virginia Beach and she didn't want to be so far away from the Philippines.

Thankfully, Mike readily agreed to the name when I suggested it. Although he did offer another name to use in place of Grace. I have a cousin who we lovingly call 'Tek', and he said we should think about using her name. But he had ulterior motives because what would we get if we combined Virginia and Tek??? I wasn't about to name my baby Virginia Tek no matter how crazy her daddy is about a particular school.

After we decided on her name, we found a Parents magazine article on baby names and what type of future a particular name holds. Apparently, we picked a name that is sophisticated and classy enough to be considered a 'Country Clubber' type of name. Way to set our baby up for success!