A Marietta Mama: Belle

I love knowing the history of a person's name.... why the parents chose it, who the baby or child is named after, etc. Because of this and because I have been asked multiple times about Annabelle's name, I thought I'd write a post about names and give you the reasoning behind her name choice.

First, I'll tell you about my name :)
My parents, especially my Father, were/are huge 'Little House on the Prarie' fans. I, in turn, am also a huge fan of this show... have many of the seasons on DVD.
Well, that show was in its biggest days around the time I was born. 'Laura' on the show is Melissa Gilbert and 'Mary' on the show is Melissa Sue Anderson. So, my parents were inspired to name me Melissa. Coincidentally, when I was a young girl, I did slightly resemble 'Laura'.... and also somewhat dreamed of being 'Laura'.
My middle name is Joy. This name is after my Mother. Her name is Mary Joyce and my parents chose the name Joy from Joyce. I love having a mix of family history and parental preference in my name.

Since I am doing this, I guess I will tell you why we chose Jonah's names too. Jonah was a name that I had liked for a long time. It took Mark a little while to come around to it, but he finally did, like 24 hours after Jonah was born. :) The name Jonah means "Dove". We didn't really choose the name based on the meaning, but we do like to know what the name means. Jonah's middle name is Samuel, which means 'sent from God'. Samuel is Mark's middle name, as well as his maternal grandfather's middle name (Karl Samuel). Again, a name that is a mix of parental choice and a bit of family history.

On to Annabelle's name.... I have known for a long time that I really wanted to use 'belle' as a part of my daughter's name. My great-grandmother was born on Easter in 1899 and was named EasterBelle. :) My grandmother, whom I have been close to my whole life also has belle in her name, Eulabelle Yvonne. While I knew I would not be naming my daughter EasterBelle or Eulabelle, I did know that I liked the 'belle' component of the name. So, we chose the name Annabelle. Anna means 'gracious' and belle means 'beauty'. Annabelle's middle name is Naomi, which in origin is Hebrew and Japanese. We really liked that this name is of Japanse origin since so much of Mark's life was spent in Japan and that heritage means a lot to us, hence the name choice of Naomi. Naomi means 'sweet, pleasant'. I hope Annabelle will live up to the meaning of her name.... a gracious, sweet, and pleasant beauty....So far she's doing a good job of it :)

Below are some pictures of our relatives whom our children are named after. I am hoping to get a picture of Annabelle with Eulabelle, her great grandmother, on our visit to Georgia in April.