Qu'est-ce que c'est ce nom?

A few people have asked us what Josephine's middle name is all about - Hiver. And coming back to work and saying her name for everyone, I realized no one knows how to pronounce it - everyone goes "OHHHH!!" So here it is, the explanation and pronunciation:

Baby A

Baby A was meant to be Josephine, if she was a girl. Oops! The minute I met the beautiful baby Alexandra, I KNEW she was Alexandra. OMG it hit me so hard that this person was Alexandra. Alexandra was not even in our top names until the very end. We had chosen other names: Persephone (Greek myth regarding the creation of winter) and Mercedes, for example. But I told Jamey the minute I met her that she was Alexandra.

I had searched for names with an "X" in them because I love that my name has an X in it. Additionally, I liked the name Alexandra/Alexander because of the relation to my name - my name first shows up in history as the Persian wife, Roxanne, to Alexander the great. They had a son, Alexander. Alexandria, Egypt is named after Alexander the Great, and pretty much every version of the name Alexander is derived from the original Alexander the Great.  Alexandria seemed a bit long though. Alexandra it was.

Her middle name was to be Noelle, Noelle is "Christmas" in French and would be a nice companion name to her twin sister's middle name, more on that later. A game day decision changed it to James. I was so relieved to have not delivered the girls any time around Christmas, that I was basically just rejecting any reference to Christmas entirely. 2013 Christmas was some horrible event that I had to "get through" - not only because I was ridiculously pregnant and uncomfortable and couldn't drink wine or do anything but also because I didn't want Christmas babies. I wanted the girls to have a good birthday, and I wanted them nice and big and as healthy as possible.

James was an obvious choice: James is a Jr., and clearly the name means a lot to his family. On my side, my dad and his dad and many of the men on his side have had the middle name James for generations. I absolutely love stealing the name from the boys side and making it a cool girl's name.

Some days I have some slight regret not going with Noelle. Only because time has erased my memory of the rejection and hatred of 2013 Christmas. And also because our little Alexandra (Alex or Lexie are both ok!) is so feminine. But you know, it is a feminine little lady that can pull off such a strong name like Alexandra James Crocket!

*See also: Alexander Ovechkin

Baby B

Josephine was our Baby A name unless Baby A was a boy and Baby B was a girl (then A would have been Jacob and B would have been Josephine - Jake and Josie). We stumbled onto Josephine several ways. James one day mentioned it while we were getting ready one morning. We had already chosen Jacob for a boy, and he said "what about Jake and Josie" and I thought omg too perfect and cute. I also wanted a nod to my mom's side of the family but female names from that side were mostly awful, and those that weren't had been recently used. When I was researching our family tree, I remembered that the name Napoleon went back many generations on my maternal grandfather's side (it was also his middle name). Well, that would be cruel to name our son, but, why not a nice nod to that side of the family with the historical Napoleon's true love, Josephine. Perfect.

We also came across her middle name several ways. I had wanted to use my grandmother's name, Irene - but I didn't like how it was pronounced in English. In french, it is Eee-rain, in English, it is Eye-reen. Josephine Eee-rain I liked, Josephine Eye-reen is too rhymey and weird. When I chose Noelle for Alexandra, I thought "Winter" would be a cute middle name for Josephine. James asked me what Winter was in French, and I said Hiver (pronounced Eee-vair), which he thought was pretty, and I liked that it sounded like Eee-rain (French Irene) and satisfied my wish to relate her name to my grandmother. Josephine Hiver also probably the coolest punk rock girl name EVER.

*See also: Bon Iver

We took our time making sure we had the names right, that we were ok with switching Alexandra to baby A and that we were happy with our decisions. We ultimately didn't name the girls until they were about 2 days old (to the chagrin of many!) but by then when James asked me if I was sure, I was. That was important to me - to be sure. It is a tremendous responsibility to name a human!