What's in a name?

Aven - It seems that each time we tell people our daughter's name, we get asked where it came from. I don't really have a cool story behind her first name - it's honestly just a name I heard years ago and filed away as one I really liked. When Tyge and I started talking about baby names I brought Aven up as a girl option, and he liked it as well so we never even thought of any others!

After she was already born and named we decided to look up the meaning (you know, in case it meant dark warrior fairy or something!) and luckily I really like the meaning as well:

The girl's name Aven \a-ven\ is an alternate spelling of "Eaven" which is the English pronunciation of a very old Irish name "Aoibheann" meaning "fair radiance".

How fitting is that? :)

Hope - Her middle name was originally to be Marie, which is my and my Grandma's middle name. However, after the mission trip to Esperanza Viva someone suggested that, since the baby was on the trip, we should somehow incorporate our experience into a name. We briefly thought about using Aven Esperanza but thought that sounded a little off for our family, so used the English translation of Living Hope instead. Also, our little miracle gave us hope after the miscarriage that we could conceive again.

 

I think it's a beautiful name for a beautiful little girl!