So much in a name...

This is the day during my pregnancies that I look most forward to, the blessing of the name. Sounds like some official ceremony but really it is as simple as Steven finally saying "that's the name." It has been the same during each of our three pregnancies. We will search the internet, search family records and search our hearts for the perfect way to name our children. Each time, we decided on the first name first and then worked on the middle name. Even when we were SURE we had the perfect name and I wanted to make it official with a sewing machine, Steven would hold out saying "there are many more names out there." However, each time we went back to the internet we would just laugh because Steven would come up with the most ridiculous names. This is usually when I know we are close to the blessing. Sure enough, two days ago Steven came up with
Sinn-a-mon M Link (using his initials) or even Sinn-a-mon persimmon. Cinnamon spelled with an S. So after the laugh, yesterday I got the blessing...and I immediately went to work choosing something to monogram.

So let's take a look at our households family tree:
Steven Michael Link: Steven and Michael came from Steven's dad's two best friends.

Jacqueline Hope Johnson: I was named after my dad. His name is John Harrell Johnson...
Both of our initials are JHJ and Jacqueline is the traditional female version of
the name John. I guess my parents just liked the name Hope.

John Parker Link: John came from both my dad and Steven's dad. We always worked on middle names while driving back and forth from Memphis to Nashville. I think that unconsciously decided on Parker because we would always stop at Parker's crossroads exit on 40. We then discovered it is the exact mid-point between my parent's house and Steven's parent's house. So since mid-point between the two Johns (the grandfathers) was Parker's crossroads, Parker became the best middle name. We have too many just Johns so a double name it was.

William Grandison Link: First of all we knew we needed a traditional name to go with John. We also knew that if we did another double name we would have to do a double name for #3 too. That is a lot of names. And we also wanted a multiple syllable name because again that would sound best with the three syllables in John Parker. William came from my dad's paternal grandfather. We know some about William and how he moved to the Carolina's from Scottland and then his family made their way to Arkansas. Grandison came from my dad's maternal grandfather. We know more about him because my grandmother "mimi" (Grandison's daughter) was able to share her family history. They called him Papa Grand. I love that!

So what is HER name?????
Katherine Michael Link: Again, we knew we needed a traditional classic name to go with John and William. I love names like Margaret and Elizabeth and Katherine. Katherine fit our family. I also really wanted to name her after her daddy since I too was named after mine. First we worked with the initials SML. Nothing exactly worked. I really like the name Michael for a girl. When we put Katherine Michael together I knew we had it! I like Katherine spelled with both the C or the K but my mom's maiden name initials were KM so Katherine with the K it is.

And our tree is full :)!!!!