Many people have asked me about the reasoning behind our name choice. Some people assume we're hippies (ok by me) ...Others have the tenacity to assume we were inspired by Beyonce'...ummmmmmm NO! Here's the story behind Ivey Grey:)
During the course of my entire pregnancy, my husband and I fought relentlessly over name choices. He wanted the kid's name to be one of a kind...unique and creative. I was all for it until I realized how "out of the box" he was really thinking. From day one, we were convinced we were having a boy. So much so, that I had designed a nursery around him and even bought a few heavily masculine onesies. We were already match making him with other friends baby girls and stocking up on peepee teepees. Those with boys know just how essential those are! As such, we were also coming up with lists of primarily male names. Now, I thought I was being super creative, suggesting names such as Fletcher, Quinton and Oscar. But when I looked in horror at the list my husband provided...I knew this would be perhaps our greatest challenge yet! Some of his gems included Primo, Falcon, and Dawkin. I wanted to cry. I was convinced that he hated our child and wanted to see him beat up in the school yard. I'm not sure what I expected from him. There is nothing conventional about the man and he meant to prove that through the naming of our children. And while I respect creativity in all forms, I do believe there is a line. ESPECIALLY when the person most affected is our poor defenseless baby. I give my husband kudos for creativity, and to his credit, he did have a unique meaning or reasoning behind each name choice. But there was no way I could ever scold Primo, praise Falcon, or proudly show pictures of baby Dawkin. After much debate and several tearful discussions, my husband and I had finally settled on a name...a boy name. I was so relieved when we walked into our 20 week ultrasound, knowing that our little boy would no longer be nameless and, even better, would have a name that we both loved. So you can imagine the shock that overtook both of us when they proclaimed rather confidently that we were expecting a little girl! I'm pretty sure we made her check at least 4 times to be sure. The baby was uncharacteristically cooperative, holding a split pose the entire time our technician examined her bits and pieces. Sure enough, it was a girl! Shock gave way to excitement, which gave way to panic rather quickly. We didn't have a name!! I had come up with a short list of girl names just in case...but had never discussed them with my husband. I'm pretty sure he hadn't come up with any girl names at all. We went to lunch after our ultrasound to celebrate and start replanning our nursery. Over dessert, I carefully broached the subject of monikers. The name at the very top of my list was Evelynn. I always have loved the name and especially liked the idea of calling her Evie for short. When my husband quickly shot that down, I lost heart immediately, knowing we were in for a long and constant struggle. After a few minutes out of the blue, he suggested Ivy. I was my immediate reaction to want to shoot him down like he did me. But as I rolled the name off my tongue, I instantly fell madly in love with it. It flowed, it was different enough, and it was absolutely beautiful. My one request was that we spell Ivey with an 'E'...just to make it a tad more interesting.
When we got home that evening, I decided to peruse the internet for the meaning behind Ivey. I was expecting to just find references to the plant. But the old English term defines Ivey as the symbol for eternity. I remember feeling a weight lifted from me. We had found our name. After the losses we had suffered, nothing seemed more appropriate than a name that symbolized our eternal love for this baby we had wanted for so long. We decided to pair it with Grey, our favorite color, and I fell even more in love with it.
Ivey has grown into her name beautifully. I couldn't imagine her as an Evelynn or a Mia or *gulp* Auria (yes I considered that name for about a minute). She is Ivey in every sense:) Beautiful, relentless, strong, and most importantly, ETERNALLY ours!
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