Kennedy Shea

Another installment of my lifelong obsession with names!

I love a hundred boys names. I've loved only 3 girls names as long as I can remember. Actually, not true. When I was really young (10-12 years old), my fave names were Delanie and Danette. bahhah! I like to say I've matured. So we'll say, "as long as I can remember" starts at 15:-) I've kept a running names list since 1997, when I was 18 years old. Every year, I add to it, as I hear of a new name I like. For 4 years in a row, there are only 3 names on that list on the girls side:

Shaughnessy
Kennedy
Laken

I didn't know/had barely met Brian when I was 18. I certainly didn't know I would marry him. Or that he was such a stick in the mud. When it comes to naming people anyway. I really had my heart set on these names!! Thankfully, he was good with Kennedy. It was my maiden name for goodness sake, so it would have been especially cruel to take that away from me, right? But not quite as cruel to dash my other hopes and dreams...Laken. Out. Shaughnessy. Out. He is 100% Irish. I thought for sure he would have some appreciation for my beloved Shaughnessy.

Apparently not all the Irish are fans of their propensity for strange spellings and words that sound shorter than they actually are...

I've had a few middle name choices for the other names, but I was stuck with Kennedy. I didn't have anything I both loved, and/or thought sounded great with it. Enter Brian. He jumped a thousand cool-name-notches in my book when he solved that dilemma. And it only took him about 2 minutes. What about Shea? Love. It's Irish, it's a family name on his side. Perfect. And the Mets played at Shea Stadium (his baseball team). Even better:-).


So our firstborn daughters name was determined before we were even married. And now we have a little girl with three last names. And they're all Irish. (Aside from the side note that "my" Kennedy line is more Scottish than Irish, but whatever, it's both Scotty and Irish, and most people automatically think of the Irish Kennedy's). And we gave her a nickname to feminize it, cutesy it up, and make it baby girl-ish...Kenna.

More about my belovin' Shaughnessy in another post, stay tuned! (My kids say belovin' instead of beloved in a few of their memorized Bible verses, I think it's cute)