Born Still but Still Born

I was reading another blog and decided to participate in Show us your life in regards to how I got my children's names.

Curtis Roger:

On both sides of our families, we have a lot of Cs. My parents and brother are all C names. All the dogs we had growing up? C names. My birth announcement said "Now we are the 4 Cs!" When I met Craig, his family has a similar name structure. His parents are both Cs, and his 3 older brothers have "K" names. All six names have the hard 'C' sound. In fact, his 2 of his brothers married women with names with the hard C sound.

Are you following this?

So, given that BOTH sides of our family had the C thing going, I wanted to do it too. When I was first pregnant with Curtis, we weren't. We tossed around names like Benjamin and Samuel... but I really wanted a C name. The problem was there was not a lot of C boy names we could agree on. Craig is not one for anything "unique" or modern (like Caden or Carson. Names I love). One day, a friend suggested Curtis to me. I fell in love. I LOVE the nickname Curt. I had a student with the name Curt and I realized it was perfect. I sent a text to Craig and he said he would "think about it". He knew a Curt at work and didn't particularly love the guy. I was devastated. I think in my pregnant hormonal mess, I bawled for a few days until he finally sent me a text that said "I like Curtis now". I saved that text long after Curtis died. I only had to give it up when I got a new phone.

Towards the end of my pregnancy, I also suggested Cole. He liked the name but said "I think Curtis is the big brother's name and Cole is the little brother's name."

Roger is Craig's middle name. Craig's middle name was after his uncle who passed away.

Claudia May:

Claudia is a name I have adored since I was a preteen. My father's name is Claude and he is the most wonderful man in the world. Claudia wasn't JUST named after him. Honestly, had my dad's name been Robert, she would NOT have been Roberta. However, it was a win/win situation. The funny thing is, when I was pregnant with Claudia, my dad kept joking I should name her Claudine, Claudette, Claudia...I would just roll my eyes and say "keep dreaming!". So, in the recovery room when we finally revealed her name, for a split second he thought we were joking. My mom knew I wasn't because she remembered me saying I loved the name years ago. He was very touched.

Had we had a girl first, her middle name would have been Abigail, after my mom. My mom's middle name is Gail and I didn't particularly love that, but do adore Abigail. But, when I was pregnant with Claudia, I wanted a way to honor Curtis. Curtina wouldn't cut it! One day I realized "May" would be perfect. Curtis was born in May, the last day of May. It was the perfect way to remember him.

Cole Charles

It should be obviously why Cole has the first name he does, if not, read Curtis' paragraph again! Charles is after my mom. Her first name is Charlene, so we made the male version of Charlene.

Had Cole been a girl, he would have been Carissa Abigail. We just loved the name Carissa and thought about it for Claudia.