Ok, several people know about our name choice by now, but I still haven't officially announced, so here goes...
She shall be called Eliana Sakura (El-ee-ah-na and Sah-kur-ah-with a slight roll of the 'r' on Sakura if you want to be super accurate).
Now I am a total stickler on names. It can't be too common, but it also can't be so different that it is freakish...does that make sense? I mean, our last name is Davis, so you don't want your kid to be one of 5 other kids with the same name in their class, ya know? That's how Ezra Nathaniel ended up with such a great name, after all. ;)
For me, a name has to have meaning!! Josh is less about meaning and more about how the name sounds--as in, it needs to sound cool to him. :)
Anyway, onto origin of this name...
Eliana is one of the names I had found when I was pregnant this summer (which ended in a miscarriage at 6 weeks). I had been looking on baby name websites and searching by meaning (imagine that, ha) using search terms like 'Lord' and 'God.' In case you don't know or have forgotten, Ezra means "God's helper" and Nathaniel means "gift of God." I like the idea of names with religious meaning that aren't overdone like Matthew, Joshua, etc. (absolutely NO offense to anyone with those names or who named their children one of these--they are great names, but see my reasoning above).
Aaaaanyway...the meaning of Eliana is "God has answered." At the time I first came across it, I thought it would fit if we had a girl since we were really hoping for one (although we would be pleased no matter what). After the miscarriage, I didn't delete the little 'sticky note' I saved on my computer with the names I'd found, and when we found ourselves pregnant again, the name Eliana stuck out more than the others because of it's meaning. We had been praying so hard to be able to get pregnant again and for God to help us deal with things if we couldn't, etc. I kind of had a peace just looking at that name and imagining a sweet baby girl that God might bless us with, so it was at the top of my list from the beginning.
Now, I know that the majority of you are thinking, "Ok, Eliana--I get it, maybe Elle or Ellie for short, but where in the world is that second name from?!" Long story short, when I was pregnant with Ezra, Josh gave me his two name choices, Sasuke (pronounced sort of like sauce-kay) for a boy and Sakura (pronounced as above) for a girl. These are Japanese names that he had come across in his avid Anime watching. I was dead-set against both of them, especially Sasuke and told him he had no idea what public school was like, that our kids weren't Japanese, etc. He had told me in the past he liked the name Nathaniel and when I was looking through a baby name book for a middle name to go with Ezra, I knew that I'd found his middle name as soon as I came across it. He appreciated it, but still kind of felt left out to a degree.
So this time around, we both were hoping for a little girl and he immediately started the Sakura talk again. Funny thing is, it didn't bother me like it used to. In fact, I kind of liked it. The meaning of Sakura in Japanese is "cherry blossom." In those first weeks of hoping and praying that this baby would be alright, I kept thinking of having a sweet little cherry blossom nursery to decorate. As we wondered if this baby would be a girl or a boy, Josh insisted it would be a girl and that he was right because he was right with Ezra. We sort of jokingly, sort of seriously called her Sakura, but others weren't quite on board with the name when Josh would mention it.
About a month before my birthday (in November), we were lying in bed one night and Josh said, "I'm going to give you an early birthday present. You don't have to name our baby Sakura if it's a girl." The weird part? I didn't feel relieved...I felt like I'd kind of lost something. I said, "I want too. I feel like that's her name now." Over time, the name has evolved into Eliana Sakura, but honestly, I would not be surprised if when she's born I take one look at her and decide she's Sakura after all!
For now, though, I think we're both pleased and set on her name.
And I can't wait to meet her! :)
