What's in a Name?

As soon as Brett & I learned we were pregnant, we started discussing names. We could not agree on any boy names, which is okay since we have a little princess cooking in there! It seemed like we immediately agreed on this little girl's name, the only problem is, how to spell it. 

Obviously, my name hasn't always been the easiest for people to understand/comprehend/pronounce. I've been called so many variations of the name, some that don't make any sense and some that are pretty close. While I am proud of the name my parents chose for me, I don't want our little one to be constantly correcting people. Recently we realized that she's probably going to have to either way, so now it's just personal preference. 

That being said, her name is: 

Vada Belle Riley

or is it...

Veda Belle Riley

VAY-duh has different meanings, depending on how you spell it. 

VADA (German) means "Famous Ruler"

VEDA (Indian) means "Sacred Knowledge" 

We prefer the latter, due to the meaning, although it seems she's already 'ruling' our lives! We chose this name for a couple of reasons. (1) It's not super popular! We don't want her to be Veda R. her whole life, especially because Brett's already worried she'll be called Darth Vader! ;) (2) We both really liked the movie "My Girl" when growing up! Sometimes I think Brett thinks we will be giving birth to Anna Clumpsky ;) (3) We don't know anyone with this name, so it's appealing. It's not common but not crazy!

BELLE (Latin) means "Beauty"

Her middle name, Belle, was Brett's grandmother's middle name (Margaret Belle Riley).  It was actually his great-grandmother's middle name as well. We're not sure if there was any significance behind the name, but we like it and want to honor his Grandmother. Brett & Margaret were incredibly close and he misses her and their incredible conversations every day.  She really held a special place in his heart. 

So there you have it ... sort of. We are still determining the spelling. It might come down to her birthday. It should NOT be this hard, but we're so indecisive!