Name Tag Game

Jennifer of Three's A Charm tagged me with the "Name Tag" game. I'm supposed to explain why I chose the names I did for our kids, so here goes...

From oldest to youngest:

Nicolas Frans: My parents are immigrants from Germany and Doug's mom is from Holland, while his dad, from Tennessee, has German and Irish roots. I wanted a strong name for our firstborn and really liked the name, Nicholas, but the "h" didn't seem to fit in with our heritage. I liked how Nicolas Cage spelled his name, it looks great on the silver screen, so I copied the spelling, which seemed more Dutch than American. The German spelling, Nickolaus, was too different for me, so we stuck with Nicolas. Frans is Nic's middle name, named after Doug's grandfather from Holland who died when Doug's mom was just a teen. Although he never met his grandfather, he bears a striking resemblance to him from a certain photo. Doug wanted to honor his Opa Frans with a middle name for our son.

Anna Marie: My dad's mother's name was Anna Jaekel and I was given her name as my middle name, although my parents Americanized it to Ann. I'd always loved the name as it is timeless and classic. The middle name, Marie, is for three people. First, Doug's mom's "real name" is Maria, so we honored her with a form of the name. Then, my grandmother from Germany, Else Oldenburg, had three middle names, with Marie being one of them. Finally, my dear Aunt Marie from Mississippi, who married one of my dad's brothers, was the only aunt I had in the States. They lived only a couple miles from the home I grew up in and I wanted to honor her for passing on her Catholic faith to me.

Greta Marie: I used to work for the Air Resources Board (State of Calif) and at least once a week, we'd walk to a great cafe called "Greta's Cafe." Also, the mom of my college roommate had a little schnauzer named Greta. I'd always loved the name and it has German and Irish roots. I have an aunt in Germany named Gretel, which was a little too German for us and Gretchen was more cutesie, so we chose Greta. With her shiny red hair, she really looks like a Greta. The middle name just sounded right, so nothing very creative there.

John Michael: I've posted about his name before, but it's been a while. Doug's brother's name is John Paul and my brother's name is Michael, so we melded the names together to created John Michael. I love the sound together, not separated. He's not a Johnny, or a John, or a John John, or Michael... he's John Michael. Before he was born, John Michael was "Thomas" up until the last few weeks. I love the name Thomas, but somehow it didn't feel right for this baby. John means "God's grace" and Michael means "one who is like God." With strong names like that, it totally fits our little guy who shows us daily his strength and love and grace.

Now I tag: Darlena from the Lehnick Family

Sharon from Brennan's Beginnings

and Chris from Mothering by the Seat of my Pants