Sara

I have always been fascinated with names. I love knowing what people’s middle names are and where they came from. Are they a family name? Do they have meaning? When someone says they are pregnant, I cannot wait to hear what they name the baby and why they chose it.

When I was a kid, I wanted any name except the one I had. The song Sara by Starship made me want to be named Sara SO BADLY! It was always a daydream of mine that someday someone would write a song with my name in it. The only one I can remember was “Lizzy is a Bitch” by Zwarte. Not what I was going for. When I played house, my name was always Nikki because it felt fun and spunky and if I was pretending to be a singer, I was always Amy, like Amy Grant, because that felt super cool. My student (I only ever had one) while playing school, was always named Josie. I’m not sure why, as I never knew anyone with that name. In grade school there was another Elizabeth in my class. We thought this was a supreme opportunity to go by something else. You know, so as not to confuse our teacher. ??? She wanted to go by Claire, her middle name, and I decided Beth would work for me. Neither stuck, thankfully. Now, I’m very happy with my name. I’m glad my parents picked something classy and timeless and not something super trendy for the day. Elizabeth is not a name you hear all the time, but it’s not weird either. And my middle name is after my favorite person on the planet, my Grandma Katherine. I am so happy Travis and I chose to pass that name on to our beautiful daughter, Sawyer Katherine. Sawyer was pretty much chosen because we liked the way it sounded with Sullivan. It was unique, but not odd, and strong. It fits our girl perfectly. Sullivan Gene is one I am super proud of as well. Sullivan was my great-great grandmother’s maiden name (O’Sullivan) and Gene was my late father-in-law Gary’s middle name. I love that Sullivan shares his middle name with his Daddy and Sawyer with her Mommy. I know my kids would surely still be the same kids no matter what we named them, but Oliver and Harper Hoffman couldn’t have been nearly as cool as these two. J