Madeline Ray

The only name Nate and I agreed on out of both boy and girl categories: Madeline Ray. It's pronounced madi-lynn but spelled the old fashioned way. There's actually a million different spellings including Madeleine which we also considered, but we're not french so we decided to go with the American spelling.

Madeline doesn't run in the family and we just stumbled upon it while searching baby names. Ray does run in the family however, it's my dad's middle name and the name he went by. It's also my mother-in-law's middle name except she spells it Rae. Rae is the popular spelling for a girl, but I know my dad would be so excited to hear that she has a name after him. Side note: it's also Miley Cyrus' middle name. Don't tell Nate that.

Madeline is #75 and Madelyn is #13 on the top 100 baby names list from last year, but I didn't know that until now when I googled it. It's not an uncommon name and we knew that when we picked it. I know a lot of parents want something unique and different like these names here, but we didn't want something that we would regret later in life (I mean really, people are naming their children after food groups and cars.) My name is different and I love it and I would probably name my daughter Maxine too... but two max's would get confusing around the house and calling her Junior would be strange.

So what does Madeline mean? It's a form of Magdalene, from Saint Mary Magdalene. It means "tower" or "elevated, great, magnificent". Which let's be honest, if she has her momma's legs then tower will suit her perfectly. Obviously, she will be great and magnificent in whatever she does.

Saint Mary Magdalene

The spelling of her name also had something to do with the books "Madeline". I watched/read all of the books as a little girl and carried the doll with me everywhere. In the books, she's sent to a Catholic boarding school and out of all the girls she is known for being the bravest and most outgoing. She also had her appendix removed. It was a big deal.

We've had this name picked out since we started to discuss names at around 8-10 weeks. Madeline stuck with us and we knew instantly when we found out it was a girl that Madeline would be her name. We're not sure how we're going to spell her nickname yet. It could be Maddie, Mady, Maddy, or Maddi. There are so many options! I'll keep you updated on what we decided to do, until then I'll use the hashtag #madelineray

Have you known a Madeline before? Or a Maddie/y/i? How did they spell it?