Jill and Mark plus eight

My daughter and I have been watching some of Jon & Kate Plus Eight. They live in the same county we do, so we get to see some local attractions when we watch. Plus it is fun to see the chaos/discipline dichotomy in action. I have already told my daughter that if she has eight kids, I will never come to visit her. I know my limitations. I love my children, but I also know what I can handle. People who know me, know my saying. "Uno, Dos, Snip."

That said, I love the naming process. So when Maren asked me what I would name eight children, I wanted to play that game. For the sake of our game, we went with even genders--four girls and four boys. It goes without saying that two of these names are already in play. It must also be said here, that I have not sought approval from Mark on these names. (But if you ask him he might say that about the current named children. He had some choices in the matter--but mainly the names he picked out ended up being for the kids of the opposite sex. We didn't know the sex of our children before they were born.)

This game is also fun for me, because I was playing it with my brother and his wife before their son was born in September. Now that the son is named, that game is over.

Without further ado...
The girls:
Maren Alexandra
Alma Julia
Pheobe Amarah
Violet Sabine

The boys:
Jonah Miles
Calvin Isaiah (Had Maren been a boy)
Boaz Nathanial
Reese Mathias


*Jonah would have been Anna Devon had he been a girl. When it came time to pick Maren's name, I felt I didn't want a Jonah and an Anna. Too many na na nas.

**Had Jonah been born in December, his name would have been Jonah December. Billy Dee William's full name is William December Williams. I always thought that was cool. Jonah would have loved to have been named after Lando Calrissian. As it is, Jonah thinks his name means Jedi Knight. Jonah (Dove) + Miles (Soldier) = Peace Soldier (Which is the definition of a Jedi knight).

*** Maren was named after grandmothers Marty and Karen. The old joke is that we were either going to name her Maren or KMart. Maren is also the Swedish form of my middle name, Marie. She has swedish ancestory on Mark's side.

****The name I would have named brother's baby is Ever James. It didn't make my list because Ever Wood sounds like a rehabilitation facility or a golf club.

*****Alma and Mathias are family names. Alma was my paternal grandmother. Mathias was the middle name of Mark's maternal grandfather. Nathanial is a derivitive of my brother Nathan's name.