What's in a name?

Recently, I've had people ask me about Avonlea's name. We've gotten so many compliments on her name. I love it! I just love her name.

First off, people always ask me how to pronounce it when they see the spelling. Let's start with what its not:
--Avon-lee-a
--A-Von-lee

It's simple, really. Av-on-lee. Or better yet, Av-in-lee. Sometimes we call her Avon, pronounced Av-in. But mostly she is known around here as sissy or sissy girl.

Where on earth did we come up with such a name, you ask? Well, I didn't come up with it at all. I grew up watching Anne of Green Gables. It was on Channel 11 almost constantly and I loved watching it. There are several movies and one of the sequels is called Anne of Avonlea.

Originally we tossed around the spelling, thinking maybe Avonleigh would be easier for people to figure out how to pronounce her name. But I really loved the look of the original spelling, so that's what we went with.

I love her name and so glad we chose it. It's unique and beautiful and I doubt she will ever have a kid in her class with the same name, which was my goal. And the best part, it completely fits her. A sweet, pretty little girl, with a hint of sass!

Quinn, her middle name was a bit different. I love the name Quinn, but hubby just wasn't a fan. I've brought it up with all three kids and he has shot it down every.single.time.

We had no idea what her name was going to be when my water broke that Sunday night. Thankfully, we had spent most of that Sunday discussing names and coming up with a list. We went to the hospital with a list of first names and a list of middle names, none matched with each other. While I was in active labor, we started to rate names. By the times she was born Monday evening, we had the first names narrowed down to Avonlea and Hadleigh.

We went to the NICU to visit her for the first time around 9pm. My father in law was with us and the first family member to meet her. Hubby and I told him our name choices and he said he really liked Avonlea Quinn. And so it was. So, I guess my father in law chose her name. :)

Funny thing, we actually had two different hospital staff comment on her name and knew where we got it from. Both we huge fans of Anne of Green Gables.

Maybe one day we will do a trip to Prince Edward Island and she can learn all about where her name came from.