The Story of Lydia's Name

Although it wasn't intentional, giving Timothy a biblical first name and family middle name set that precedent for the rest of our kids, and we're glad to have kept with that "theme."

Lydia's middle name, Anabel, was chosen as our girl middle name before Timmy was even born. I knew I wanted to name my first daughter after my Grandma, spelling it the same way she did (because no one needed all those extra letters, she said of the traditional Annabelle spelling).

Lydia was always one of our top choices for a girl, and though we considered several others, we kept coming back to it. We debated on using the girl name we had chosen for Timmy, which was Molly. We also considered Felicity (that may have been mostly in my head), Charlotte and several others that I can't quite recall. In the end, we decided to keep the biblical first name theme and this was both our favorite.

My biggest hesitation in using the name Lydia was that we already know a few families who have used it for their little girl. Two of them live far away from us but there is already one sweet Lydia at our church (apologies to Thea, Sarah and Lynne; you have good taste in names!). We really liked that Lydia in the Bible was known for her hospitality, and the fact that the name means 'noble' (according to some websites), so we decided to go with it. Plus, the biblical Lydia sold purple cloth and I've always loved purple for little girls (which is clearly the deciding factor in choosing your child's name).

Like her brothers, she's got a host of nicknames, typically being called Lydibug, Ladybug or just Bug. She also goes by Lydibel (Lydia + Anabel) and Baby Girl. Lydibug has lead to me acquiring lots of ladybug things for her, and I daydream about a purple bedroom for our little girl someday.

Somehow, this little Lydibug will be 12 weeks old on Tuesday, and while she's quite happy about that fact, 

sometimes it can get a little exhausting.

(Yes, she's sleeping on the pew at church.)