The Naming of the Crew

How bout that title?! I'm so clever sometimes it frightens me. Throughout the last twenty years each of my kids at one time or another has asked me how we came up with their names. Either out of curiosity or a school or church lesson, they have wanted to know the origin of their individual labels. So here goes...

Kolby Knight: My firstborn. My initiation into the overwhelming world of parenthood. What to name this little person who is entrusting me with everything. Well I'll tell you right now that I *wanted* to name you Christopher (or Kristopher) and call you Kit. But the only way Monte would go for that was to forgo the Christopher part and name you Kit Carson Carver. Now although Kit Carson WAS a real and influential man (whose REAL name was Christopher by the way...just throwin that out there), I thought it was silly to name my baby after some guy in a book that we weren't even related to! Why not name a child Alice in Wonderland Carver? Sheesh! We could not come up with anything we both liked and the vetoes were flying like bullets. We both wanted originality, something that flowed with the last name, it wasn't coming. Finally, as your dad was selling pest control door to door, he came across a man who had a name that he liked. After selling this dude on some bug warfare he came home and shared the name with me, and I liked it too! Kolby it was!! Your middle name was easy for me and I all but demanded it, Dad didn't argue. It's my mom's maiden name, a name that conjours thoughts of a man standing for truth and righteousness. A man who will fight for what's right. A man like the man I knew you would be. My Knight.

Kelsie Lucretia: Your name was not easy to come by either. Your dad thought it would be cool to somehow tie in your name with mine. I was flattered but wasn't sure that it was the right thing to do to my little girl, after all I was named after my dad's favorite Irish Pub, but I let Monte play with my name and try to find something. Unfortunately what he came up with was Kelicia or Keleasha, I'm not sure how he wanted to spell it, but you get the idea. I thought that this name might be a little too um...ethnic, for the two whitest people on earth. After alot of names and more vetoes were thrown around (this time we had Kolby's ideas too...Cookie, Lambchop), we both tentatively settled on Chelsea. We told your dad's Aunt Christie our name choice and she said "Why Chelsea? Name her Kelsie." Well Wow! What a revelation! That was it from that day forward. Your dad and I kind of had an agreement that we'd trade off the middle names and sadly for you...this was his turn ;] Your middle name is the name of your dad's mommy. The woman that he worshiped above all others. She was a bit annoyed that we named her sweet granddaughter Lucretia, having lived with the name all her life, but I'm glad we did and I think you are too.

Caleb Justice: Your dad and I still felt like kids ourselves when we had your two older siblings. When you came along we were starting to feel like grown-ups. We had just begun to purchase our first home, we bought a mini-van, we were professional parents now! So we took a more grown-up approach to naming you. In other words, your dad pretty much left it up to me (after all, it was my turn for the *middle* naming anyway). Obviously he had to push for Kit Carson Carver again, but after that he was pretty agreeable to my favorites. You were born and we were in the hospital but I still had not come up with a suitable name for this gorgeous little creature. My first choice was Sterling which I still love, it made me think of you as a Supreme Court Judge, or a Texas Ranger. I called you Sterling for several hours but it wasn't working for me. Then I decided upon Casey Jon. Casey had some sentimental value for me and Jon is my dad's name. That would probably buy me some brownie points with my folks. I even went so far as to call my family and tell them that this was your name. But that night, actually it was around 3 in the morning, in that dim hospital room where you and I were the only occupants, I was holding you and looking at your perfect little face and I knew that your name was not Casey Jon. It was Caleb Justice. It slid into place in my mind like a Lego block. It clicked. For whatever reason your name could be nothing else. To me Son, this is important. You are meant for something great and your name will be tied to it. Keep that in mind always. What will you do with this name?

Chance Chatelain: Obviously it was your daddy's turn for the middle name again ;) After we had the usual and endless "Kit Carson Carver" argument, we both settled on Chance fairly quickly. Your dad likes to tell people that we named you Chance because that's kinda how you came to be. We do have fun with your name...slim Chance, fat Chance, no Chance, notta Chance, last Chance. I came up with your name, and while I let your dad's brain and mouth run amok, I know where your name came from. I got it from a beautiful song titled "I Am Your Child" and if your dad had any notion that I got your name from a Barry Manilow song he would have used his biggest veto on it. So I kept that information to myself until it was too late for him to do anything. To me your name means infinite hope and optimism. Chatelain is the maiden name of your Grandpa Bob's mother. A spunky and fun red-head who left him too soon. So far you've lived up to your name of potential and affirmation. You keep it up my little man!

McKenna Elyse: Our sweet baby girl. We knew that you would be our last little one so your name weighed pretty heavy on my mind. If you were a boy you were going to be named Connor (whether your dad liked it or not), but I was having a harder time with girl names. By the time you were a week from being here we had it narrowed down to McKenna and Cheyenne. Both of them brought to my mind beauty, strength, femininity, nature, and a carefree spirit. I'm a Wyoming girl so I was leaning toward Cheyenne, but I had been kind of a hog the last couple times with the baby naming. Monte's favorite movie is "Somewhere in Time" with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve. He had (still has) a huge crush on Jane Seymour, and I don't mind watching the movie with him because Christopher Reeve (God rest his soul) is absolutely beautiful in this movie. I digress Sweetheart...Jane Seymour's character's name in this movie is Elyse McKenna. I liked the fact that McKenna (like Kelly ;]) is an Irish name, and I liked it better as a first name so we did a switcheroo and Ta DAH.... Yes, we are very clever. I love it.

There you go my darlings. There, for better or worse, is the nature and origin of all of your names. I'm proud of all of them just as I am proud of the people they title. You five are my life and truest loves. Make good use of these names. Treat them with respect so they will be spoken with respect by your posterity.