When I found out I was having a girl and she would be born in the summer I knew I had to name her Summer. I love the sun, the heat, the color yellow, the hot, so Summer was the perfect name. If she had been born 6 weeks earlier she may have been a Spring, or something else, but Summer it was because all things aligned in the universe. Summer is not extremely common, and it is not a traditional name, and cannot be shorted since I did not want her to have a nick name (Jessica - Jess/Jessie). Sometimes we call her Summy but usually she is just Summer. And no, I never considered Somer, or some other odd spelling.
Since her first name was not a traditional name (Jane, Kelly, Jessica) I wanted her middle name to be more traditional but yet somewhat unique. I wanted it to start with an A and have at least 3 syllables because I felt like it sounded good. I told Kris he could pick her middle name because I could care less, to me middle names are stupid and pointless. I only use my middle initial when I am signing my name, otherwise you would never even know I had one. And I don't recall my mom calling me by it when I was in trouble - but she could have (Jessica LYNN!).
To much disappointment from family and friends, I did not pick Shine, Rain, Moon, or other random things that you think would go with Summer. Those names seem to be common lately and I am not at all about being common.
Kris picked Amelia. When I heard it for the first time I thought of Amelia Earhart, and she was dead, so it was a pretty uncommon name. I had never heard anyone else use the name. I will be honest, I did not like it, and have issues with the fact that it can be both 3 and 4 syllables depending on how you say it (a-mill-ya) or (a-mill-e-ya) but again, don't care about middle names so Amelia was fine and went well with Summer.
Since having Summer I have met a lot of Amelia's - so what we thought was pretty uncommon ended up being way more common and is on the top list of baby names. Who knew? If Summer ever decides she doesn't like Summer for some reason, which I thought might happen when she acted like she hated being hot and being outside in the summer, then she could switch to her worthless middle name. Maybe she could be a Milly?
Pepper was not as easy to name. And no, much to the disappointment of family and friends, I did not want to have a Summer and an Autumn, even if she was born in the right season. I wanted a much more unusual name this time around and had several names considered (like Clover and Willow), it is apparent that I like "thing" names better than real names huh? My very beautiful and clever niece had just had a little girl a year earlier and named her daughter Pyper and I really liked that name. When Kris agreed on the name Pepper I sent my niece a facebook message and asked her if she minded if I used the name Pepper. Pepper and Pyper would see each other once or twice a year (if lucky). Of course she said she did not mind. At least she typed out that she did not mind, who knows what she really thought. And what if she had said No, that would be too awkward. Pfft it is my child and I will name her what I want!!! My point is why bother asking someone if they mind if you name YOUR child something, they will either say they don't mind because they are being nice, even if they do mind, or they will say eh its odd and you will still name your child what you want. But I really don't think my niece minded.
Besides sounding really cute to me, I also named her Pepper because she was very active inside my belly and I liked to say she was spicy. I did have to have an emergency c-section because I ran out of amniotic fluid which I like to say was because she was so spicy. I guess not all peppers are spicy ... and honestly I don't love peppers, I mean I will eat them and the hot ones don't bother me much, but I can't eat the green, red, or yellow raw - texture issue. Pepper will eat raw peppers (yay) which makes me feel better for naming her Pepper. Imagine if she hated peppers :o/ awkward!
Most people I meet that are 39 and under think the namePepper is really cute. People 40 and over usually just say oh when Pepper tells them her name, or they look at me and confirm what they thought they just heard her say, Pepper? Pepper Potts is a character on Iron Man, which is not at all where I got her name, and no one ever assumes that, which leads me to believe those movies aren't very popular?
Since Pepper is not a traditional name and incase she hates it when she grows up I wanted a more traditional middle name. Since Summer had a vowel three (or four) syllable middle name I wanted Pepper's middle name to also start with a vowel and be 3 or 4 syllables. Somehow we found Isabel. We joked about calling her a Bell Pepper (isaBel) and even thought about reversing the order but I was pretty set on Pepper. She is our little Bell Pepper. Isabel was also just an eh name for me. Again - who cares about middle names? When we picked Isabel I don't think I realized how common it was, well with the exception of Spanish names. I just thought it went with Pepper and I liked that it could be shortened to Izzy, who I always liked on Grey's Anatomy.
Pepper was also a name that could not be shorted into a nickname, or at least I thought. I find myself calling her Pep or Peppy often, even though Peppy is not any shorter than Pepper. I hope she doesn't find herself the brunt of name jokes (pepe le pew, Peppa Pig, Dr. Pepper) but if she does she will survive like we all have had to do.
If I have another daughter, which is not going to happen, I already have several names picked out just incase. Of course it would probably change a lot because picking the right name is such an important deal to me, but I love thinking about names. Bunny would be a cute name, don't you agree? I also like Ginger and have a great aunt named Ginger, but I don't want to have 2 food named children.
And that is why my children are named Summer and Pepper, and here is why my blog is named Summer Sausage and Pepperoni. Now I am hungry :o/
