As people have been asking me how we cane up with the name “Eden”, I decided to write about it…then I realized that I haven’t written about how we came up with Tatum’s name- so I will do both!
When we named our girls, we didn’t know anyone else with their names, and I like that. I know of some people who have Tatum as a last name, but not first. Since Tatum has been born I know of someone else with a baby named Tatum, but he is a boy. And someone else we know has named their daughter Tatum. I like the uniqueness of their names. With both girls when we were picking out names I would look up the popularity of that name to make sure it wasn’t too common. Brian didn’t really care about that and made fun of me a bit. But the meaning of the name we chose was important to both of us.
TATUM RAE MAINES
People didn’t ever ask much how we came up with “Tatum” ( I guess it’s a little bit more of a common name), so I don’t get to explain it much even though I really like to. As some of you know, my older brother died about 4 ½ years ago and his name was Nathan Tate Wilson. So, that’s where Tatum comes from. And the name means ‘bringer of joy’. Which is so fitting for our sweet girl. Not only does Tatum bring joy to the lives of those whom she meets, but she also has brought so much joy back to my parents. Especially my mom; Tatum brought joy back into my mom’s life where it had been absent for two years. And, of course, Tatum continually brings joy into my heart. She is so precious.
Rae is my middle name. And my uncle’s and my cousin’s etc. all the way back to where it was originally a last name on my mom’s side.
Rae is also a family name on Brian’s dad’s side! So it was really cool for us to get to use a name that honors both of our families.
EDEN ANNE MAINES
I have had a huge list of both girl and boy names picked out ever since we first got pregnant with Tatum. So when we found out we were having another girl, I just assumed that we would choose a name from that list. I really liked the name Harlow. Brian liked it too, but he liked Autum more. I liked Autum, but I liked Harlow more… We couldn’t agree and I was pretty sure I was going to ‘win’.. after all the little nugget was inside of me- surely that meant I was more capable of picking her name. Not to mention, who wants to argue with a pregnant woman :) ?
Then one night I was reading through a bible study online that was talking about Eden. As I was reading, I began to think about what Eden represents. So, naturally, I look it up online as a name and find that (duh) it is very rare. Then I look up the meaning: of course it was the name of God’s garden where Adam and Eve first lived; also a delightful place, a paradise; also a state of innocence, bliss, ultimate happiness. Perfect. So I walked out of the office and casually informed Brian what our daughters name was :). It caught him off guard, but once he had time to process my rapid departure from our Harlow/Autum conversation, he loved it too!
I frequently pray those definitions over our own Eden- that she would remain innocent, that her beauty would bring God pleasure, happiness.
Anne is Brian’s mom’s middle name. And also his great Aunt’s name.
I also have an aunt Anne. And it was my Dad’s grandmother’s name. So cool to have another name to honor both families!
I love our girls so much and I love what their names represent.
“You were in Eden, the garden of God…your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared.” Genesis 28:13
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