Liliana Rose

Quite a few people have asked me why or how we got her name. No, I'm not obsessed with flowers (although I do like them quite a lot). We've always known that the girl's middle name was going to be Rose (my Mom's name is Rosa) and the first boy's middle name would be Daniel (my Dad's name is Daniel). So, that was set.

Now, for the first name. We wanted something: unique, Spanish sounding, beautiful, not too difficult to pronounce, and a name that when shortened, was still cute. Evan was particular on not wanting anything too Southern sounding - ex: MacKenzie, Bradlyn, etc. and that worked for me because as I said, I wanted something that incorporated her heritage from her Mother's side as well. My family is Puerto Rican.

My husband's last name is Lacefield. Mine is Ramirez. WHAT? Was I one of "those" that kept her maiden name? haha...yes. This will take some explaining and getting off topic, but here we go. It's not that I don't love my husband. It's not that I'm not honored to be his wife. It's not that I don't consider us to be a family. It's just that my Puerto Rican heritage is very important to me. It's just that I don't see why I have to change MY name. I completely understand why most people do change their name. I've just known, since I was young, that I was born and would remain a Ramirez. After Evan and I got engaged, I decided he should know my decision. Our conversation lasted a whole 8 seconds. It went like this:

Cristina: So hon, I've decided I want to keep my maiden name after we get married. I don't want you to be offended, you know I love you, it's just that

Evan interrupts Cristina. Evan: That's fine. I don't care. Will our kids last name be Lacefield?

Cristina: Yeah.

Evan: Ok. Hey, I'm hungry, let's eat.

And, that was it.

ANYWAYYYYY...back to my baby girl Liliana's name. Since she was getting Lacefield as her last name, I wanted something Spanish as her first name. This wasn't an essential trait, just a desired one. We went on the internet after searching through some baby name books (we found ZERO names we liked in the books). On the internet we found three names we liked for our first girl: Liliana, Gabriella, and Ella. Ella is too popular now, so that was out. It was in between Liliana and Gabriella. We liked both Gaby and Lily (when people gave her a nickname). Then, the second that they told us it was a girl, we both knew...her name was Liliana.

People thus far have LOVED the name choice. We've heard "oooh, that sounds like a heart breaker." : ) And, we are in love with our name choice...just like we're in love with her.