Whenever we tell anyone Essie's name we always receive lots of wonderfully positive comments. People tell us how pretty and unusual a name it is. And we totally agree, it is such a gorgeous name! But unlike her brothers, there is a story behind Essie's name. We didn't choose it just because we loved it, which is why we chose Noah and Jude. There is something a little extra special behind our baby girl's name...
I didn't have the best childhood. In fact, it was a pretty miserable existence. The happy memories that I have are almost all from time spent with my grandparents. I was very lucky as not only did I have grandparents on both my mum and dad's sides of the family, but I also had step-grandparents and I had great-grandparents!
I spent a lot of my school holidays with my great-grandparents, Stan and Jess, short for Stanley and Jessie. I adored my Nan and Grandad. I loved them more than anyone in the entire world. They made me feel safe and loved. My Nan taught me to knit, play Scrabble and make Yorkshire puddings, and had a wicked sense of humour. My Grandad taught me how to tell the time and to spell, well ahead of anyone else in my class. My love of gardening came from them, with Nan teaching me how to care for plants while Grandad taught me how to grow vegetables. Nan told me stories of how they met, during the war; it was the sort of story that films are made of.
Grandad passed away when I was 12. My beautiful Nan though, I was fortunate enough to have her in my life until last year. I was devastated when she passed away. I can't tell you how much my heart ached and probably always will. I'm constantly reminded of her. I'll smell a particular scent and think of her, or I'll go to text her a question about a plant in the garden before remembering that I can't.
A few months after Nan passed away, I found out that I was pregnant. And a few months after that I found out that we were expecting a little girl. I said to Ian that I wanted her to be named after my Nan in some way, but I didn't want to name her Jess or Jessie or even Jessica. I was pondering using her name as a middle name, when I heard the name Essie one day and fell in love. I searched online for the origins of the name: a French baby name meaning star. It is so similar to my Nan's name in sound, yet so different, and with an utterly delightful meaning. I couldn't have found a more perfect name.
I love typographical prints for the children and the boys already have a few different ones featuring their names. Essie doesn't have her own room yet but I have been collecting pictures and ornaments for when she does. This print from The Jam Tart is Essie's first piece of personalised artwork and has whimsical animal letters spelling out her name. Her print has an elephant, a snake, a swan, an iguana and an eagle. I love that even though there are duplicate letters in her name, each animal letter is unique. I just need to find the perfect frame for it now! You can get your own personalised print in a variety of colours at Apples & Pips for £28.00 - use my reader discount code to get 10% off: QFSS10.
Oh that's such a lovely story. Jaxon is one that Chris found - he wanted something kind of usual rather than just going for a normal name. So Jackson means Son of Jack pretty much so it's just a different spelling. It's meaning is God has been Gracious. His middle names are then my Grandad's name Albert followed by Byng which is a name passed down the boys in Chris's family. Chris is a distant relative to a guy called John Byng who was an admiral in the British Navy. He basically conscientiously objected to his orders from his superiors and refused to go into battle because he knew it was a suicide mission. He was court marshall then executed for treason. His descendants have been appealing to the MOD since it happened to get his name cleared. So Jaxon is a bit of a mixture of everyone. New and then borrowed from either side of the family.
ReplyDeleteP.s. When I was pregnant with Jaxon I was convinced he was a girl, I wanted to call "her" Margaret Elizabeth after both my Grandmas (Elizabeth is my Grandma's middle name). The other idea was Daisy Elizabeth after my Great Grandma and Grandma but by the time we got to the point of decided actually names we didn't need a girl name
ReplyDeleteOh that is such a lovely story behind her name! With my two we chose their first names purely because we liked them, but their middle names are all 'for' people that we love. x
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