Baby Names - Anne Lancaster

When Katherine was 9 months old, I found myself pregnant again.  And yes, I was just as shocked as I was when I learned I was pregnant with Nin.  If you've never experienced long-term infertility, you don't understand the "I don't get pregnant like 'normal people' do" thought process.  We seriously had thought the pregnancy with Katherine was a fluke.  But now, here I was - pregnant again and finding out on Easter Sunday - we joked that there was an Egg in the Basket. Seventy-two hours later, I started bleeding.  Thankfully, we hadn't discussed names yet.  Maybe when Nin was two we'd try again.  Man makes his plans, but God directs his paths.  {laugh}  Yes, we made our plans and God had other ones. My miscarriage was complete and didn't require medical intervention at all.  By mid-April, I was fertile again and on May 1, I learned I was pregnant again.

I seriously considered ditching the queen/saint pattern for the name Caroline Fern - Caroline because we liked it, a lot; and Fern for my maternal grandmother (my grandmother would have been 86 on Dec 6 that year - she died Oct 30, 1960). However, I had the nagging "we've started this pattern, I don't want to ditch it with the third baby" feeling. PLUS, my cousin and his wife had a little girl named Caroline. I didn't want my grandmother to have two great-granddaughters named Caroline.  So, I started researching names again.  Anne. A queen - and specifically a Tudor woman (like Elizabeth and Katherine) - and a saint.  Plus an adorable nickname in Annie.  Loved it.  So did Brad.  But, Anne Fern was NOT going to work.  It was important that this baby be named after my grandmother.  Wilma (her first name) absolutely not. But her maiden name was Lancaster.  Anne Lancaster.  Brad and I looked at each other and knew immediately, that was IT!  Anne Lancaster and we'd call her "Annie". 

I know a couple of other Annies in addition to my own - one is about to be six, one is five, mine is three.  All three of them are little imps! They are absolutely adorable but man...do these girls have some spunk! Confirms to me that my Annie has the perfect name for her personality, too!