Holland Rae

Sweet Little Holland Rae.

Your name has so much significance and meaning to us and tells a story of where you're from.  Now we can't wait to see who YOU become and what your future holds!

Almost 2 and a half years ago, when Aven was about six months old, I was reading a celebrity gossip magazine and saw that someone had named their baby Holliday.  While that name didn't strike any cords with me, it reminded me of Holland and I mentioned it to your dad that night and he LOVED it.  The irony was that we were not even considering another baby at that time and really had no need for girl names (we assumed if we had a third child that naturally it would be a boy and we already had our boy name picked out of course).  However, we both agreed then that if we ever had a third girl she would be named Holland.

So what's the family significance behind Holland?

Holland is a region of the Netherlands and an ode to your Dutch heritage.  It is where your great great great grandfather on your dad's side was born and lived into adulthood before moving to the United States.  His name was Arend, and he had a son named Edward (your great, great grandfather), who had a son named Ray (your great grandfather, who your dad called Papa), who had your grandpa, Ray (your dad's dad and we also call him Papa) who had your dad, Phil.  You can read all about your family history in a book called "Looking For Our Wooden Shoes".

There is also sentimentality for me with the name Holland.  When I was in high school, I played on the 16 and Under U.S. National Woman's Field Hockey Team.  We traveled to Holland to play all the other national teams in the world and came in third.  To date, it is still my only trip to Europe, and I cherish the memories, experiences and maturing I did on that trip.

And what about your middle name, Rae?

Your dad is Philip Ray.  Your Papa is Raymond, and his dad was Raymond.  If we ever had a son his middle name would have been Ray.  We toyed with the idea of leaving your spelling as Ray (and it would have fit, since your sisters both have y's in their middle names), but I wanted it to be slightly more feminine, so we went with Rae.

Then the saga began of actually committing to your name.

Once we found out that we were having you, our third daughter, we began talking about your name.
Your dad naturally assumed we were still going with Holland, but I was having second thoughts.  I still loved the name, but I had two hang ups about it.  Your cousin has the middle name Hollande (which was super ironic since we had never had any conversations about that name with Aunt Lindsey and we both pulled it out of the blue), but I also had a friend who's nephew was just named Holland Ray.

So we came up with a couple of other names:

Merrick Wren
Hollen Rae

While Merrick had no meaning behind it (other than I liked it and your dad okayed it), I really liked Wren because it is a little bird and you would be our baby bird.  We tried calling you that for a week or so, but neither of us could really embrace it.

Then your dad said, what if we just do a little spin on Holland and name you Hollen.  Again, we tried it for almost a month, but I just kept coming back to the fact that it was so close to Holland, but it didn't have the significance of Holland and I just didn't love it as much as Holland.

And so it was decided.  Holland Rae would be your name.  We love the history behind it and feel like it fits perfectly with our family!  My favorite part of your name so far has been hearing your big sisters calling you Baby Holland for the past few months.  Now they finally get to look you in the face and know you by name!