The Daily Hailey

I asked the kids what I should blog about today. I couldn’t squeeze an idea out of Dekker, being that he is FAR too practical, and wouldn’t ask me to write about something that he didn’t feel was important or relevant in the moment. Laela piped up from the dining room, however, with “I know!” I asked what she thought I should write about.

Write about me!
I write about you lots. What should I write about you?
About my letters!
What letters?
MINE!
What letters do you mean, Laela?
The letters in my name!!

So. Todays post is about Laela’s name!

Accoring to the internet, Laela (Layla, if we’re being real here) means “born at night,” which is both boring and also accurate. In my books, it means “best little girl to have ever walked the earth,” but Google and I don’t have to agree on everything. I fell in love with Laela’s name years ago when I first watched the movie, Big Daddy. She was the pretty girl in the park, and her name was SO sing-songy. I hung onto it on my secret list of baby names all through my adolescence, and was SO relieved when my husband loved the name too.

When I was pregnant with Laela, we went on a road trip as a family, and as we drove, we talked baby names. We’ve named a couple of our kids on road trips, actually. I couldn’t tell you why, but its just a fun space to make those plans for us 🙂 We were working on a middle name for Laela, and I threw one out that sparked BIG in Brady’s heart. He LOVED it, maybe even more than the first name we had settled on. I also LOVED the name. It was beautiful and feminine and would’ve gone great with our family’s style. Brady was SOLD, and I love him to death, so we decided to entertain that name as a first name. By the end of that road trip, Laela wasn’t Laela anymore. Her name had officially changed.

Guys, I tried. I called her by name when we talked about her. We thought of nicknames for her. I genuinely loved the name! Except it never ever came naturally. I always had to think about it. I always forgot what name we had decided on. Constantly. I gave it a solid month, if I remember correctly. But it just wasn’t happening.

I finally decided to conduct an experiment. A very simple but telling experiment.

I asked Brady what we named the baby.

“Lae… uh…” and then he said the name we had picked. I was relieved. We both knew in that moment that it just wasn’t her name. Neither of us ever got it first try. It just wasn’t coming naturally. I told Brady that I think the baby’s name is Laela, and he agreed.

That is how our Miss Laela got her name. The spelling is different than the usual spelling (Layla) just because we thought it was pretty and a little big different. Not too weird, but distinct. Like how Dekker could’ve been spelled “Decker.” We like things to be a tad on the odd side 😉 If you know us, you know this.

For the record, I would tell you the name, because I know I’m doing that evasive thing, and I hate when people do that. Its not on purpose! We just still like the name a lot, and it will remain on our list.

I hope you enjoyed the history of naming my girly!! I LOVE her name. Not a single regret!