Ansley White (Part 2)

White

Picture courtesy of Gianna James Photography

So now that we had decided about naming our girl Ansley, we had the challenge of coming up with a middle name to go with it.  Both our older kid's middle names: Carl and Brooke, are family names from my side; we figured it would be easy to find another family name to use.

We searched our family history for any sign of a potential family name.  But nothing really felt right, and none of the random names we looked at had the significance or meaning of our other two middle names.  Defeated with the idea of a family name, we decided on Madison.  A pretty name that we both liked, one of Daniel's favorite Presidents, (so she would be named after a President like Reagan is) that would give her the same initials as me, AMD.  Ansley Madison it was.

Enter Daniel's subconscious.

One day I got a text message from Daniel, "What do you think of the name Lina?"

-pronounced "Line-Uh"-

I apologize to anyone who likes this name, is named this, has family named this, or anyone else who might be offended by what I'm about to say:

I do not like the name Lina.

Daniel had had a dream, in which he was given a clear message that he needed to name this baby after his Great Great Grandmother, Lina Lee White.

A little history on Granny White.  It was the late 1800's/early 1900's, everyone in her area had left the Church, and her daughter was going through a very rebellious stage, threatening to tear the family apart.  Needless to say it was a very pivotal time in her life and the lives of her family.  She raised Daniel's grandma and siblings, remained faithful, kept the family together and active in the Church, and to this day is known as the rock of faith in the Dew family.  Even after her death, several members of the family have had dreams that Granny White has visited them in trying times.  The night before he had the dream, Daniel had read Granny White's patriarchal blessings and really felt a closeness to this wonderful woman.

After learning more about Granny White, I knew we were going to have to make this name work.

With Lina out, we were left with Lee.

Obviously Ansley Lee doesn't work.  To me, that put us right back at square one.  And I felt so sad and so defeated by it.  I had felt so strongly about Ansley, and now to have it taken from me was a hard pill to swallow.  So we talked and talked and talked about names that would go with Lee as the middle name.

But nothing seemed right and nothing fit the way that it should.  Until finally it hit us.... Lina Lee had one other name: White.  And it fit just perfectly with Ansley.

So we decided right then and there she would be our Ansley White.  The search for a name was finally, FINALLY over!!

And just to make sure Daniel didn't change his mind AGAIN, I began getting Ansley stamped and embroidered on basically everything I bought for the baby thereafter.  And now she's here and perfect and her name is perfect, too!  Thank goodness!!!!

See part 1 here