Karolying: Finding Miss Allison

Dear Blog,

It is hard to name a child. To name this new little person who will have this name that you as a parent now bestow upon them for the rest of there life here on earth.....that is unless they hate it so badly they change it. That's alot of pressure. Then there's when you have a set name before birth and then see the child, what if they don't look like that name??? Or maybe you see the child without a set name and already know that in a few weeks time they're going to look different, or as they grow they will not look like that set Johnathan or Abigail they were named? Now things have become stressful.

When we had our first child, we went to the hospital with a list of about 6-7 names. As we met our son, heck I don't think his name was even on that list! He ended up being in the NICU for a few days of which we called him "baby". Somehow we came away with the idea of "James". I've never been thrilled about that name but it sounded right. So we thought and thought and thought some more about it. Of course as everyone does, look at the history of people you know by that name and make sure you liked every James possible before even considering that for one of your children's set names. Indeed, every James was great. More than great. Apparently it was in our family history names. Not to mention the Book of James, one of the apostles I greatly admired growing up was James E. Faust, and one of my brothers middle names was James. Many reasons to like the name James, but in the end it just felt right. We had taken Daniel from his daddies middle name Justin Daniel Karoly, making it James Daniel Karoly.

(Though I think Justin is a year older than James in this picture it still kills me how much they look alike! Love it!)

When James turned 1 we were thinking of names for little girls and little boys. Little did we know, we wouldn't get pregnant until James' 2nd birthday. When I was about 12 years old I was learning to crochet the outer edge of a blanket. A group of girls and I learned to do this on baby blankets we would keep and save for later days. I have always known that I would have a boy first so I had made a baby boy blanket. However, curiosity was there for what our next baby would be. Because round two took a bit longer to be pregnant we had much more time to think of names. During that time I felt we would have a girl next. Okay, that's strange....until Justin said the same thing. Hmm....well, guess when we get pregnant next we'll eventually find out for sure :)

Meanwhile names were popping out all over the place. Mostly boy names. Somehow girl names we were what seemed to be more picky with lol. One night I think it was Justin who asked me where I got my name from. I told him that my name originated from my Great Grandma Alice on my moms side. My moms, moms, mom. They had simply picked the middle name, May because it sounded pretty. Alicia May Bennion. I had then said that I have always loved the name Allison and wouldn't mind carrying that on in a way without it being the same exact name. My sisters would call me "Alice" growing up and I felt like it was magical in a way lol. Then I had many friends who would call me Alicia May, which was also fun. So over time I had grown to really love the name Allison as a way to incorporate those things.

Great Grandma "Dollie Alice Cole"

For once a girls name was thought about for longer than a few minutes. Justin than put out there, "would we give her the same middle name like we did mine to James?" I said, "I don't know, what do you have in mind?" He then said, "The only way we could name her Allison is if I could call her Alli - May." I thought, well hey, I've never heard of that name before but I definitely like it. Sure! Especially if I get my Allison out of it. It's a deal!

So here we were a good year and half before having a little girl and already having a name for her. Did the fear of having that one and only name picked out, not even seeing her yet and wondering if it would be the right one, scare us? kinda, but at the same time we really felt like that was supposed to be her name. When we first saw her she honestly looks like an Allison to us. And a definite Alli-Mae.

After some decision on how to spell the name we've decided to go with Allison Mae Karoly. Turns out that on Justin's side of the family there is a Great Grandmother whose middle name is spelled Mae. I especially liked how it's said the same as mine but unique in it's own way and includes the other side of the family.

Another fun blast from the past....

(Allison - Newborn, Alicia - 1 Month old)