finding the perfect name.

Todd and I are a pretty good little duo when it comes to naming our munchkins.
Finding the perfect little names for our girls has been a pretty easy process for us.
The route to selecting Andie was very similar to choosing Quinn, and it all just seemed meant to be.

It's pretty clear now that we really like simple, unique and sporty names for girls.
The teachers in us definitely also lean towards names that are easy to pronounce and less likely to have many multiples in classes over the future years, as well as can't be connected to past students of ours. :)

Girl names come easy to us.  Boy names not so much.
We have never come up with even one boy name, really.
We must have always known girls were coming our way. :)

Quinn Avery ~
When we chose Quinn, it was definitely more popular for a boy name and unique for a girl.
It is slowly gaining popularity, but we still get comments constantly on Quinn's name.
Choosing Quinn's name was simple, we just loved it and we were done searching.  We had her name selected when I was about 14 weeks pregnant and we were convinced she was a girl for sure.  Her middle name came easy too.  I always loved Avery, we liked how it sounded together and we just said "done". :)  No need to complicate the process by adding a whole list of choices when you know there is one you love.

Andie Ainsley ~
Arriving upon Andie's name was a very similar journey.  I mentioned it months before we were pregnant as a name I liked, Todd was okay with it (this happened with the name Quinn too :)).  After discovering we were pregnant, Todd came home from officiating a volleyball tournament and said he saw a name on a team roster that he liked.  It was Andi.  I smiled to myself but played along that it was a great name idea.  I eventually filled him in that I had suggested it months before. :)  Once we realized we both loved it, just like Quinn we were pretty sure that was a sign that it was meant to be.
This time around though there were a few more things that led me to the name Andie.
One, I loved Kate Hudson's character in the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days - Andie Anderson.
So cute and loved the named Andie from this role.  This sparked the name for me.

Two, I am an 80's girl, so when we had selected Andie and I realized that the name Andie was also from an iconic 80's teenage movie - Pretty in Pink - it was just another little sign for me.  And who doesn't love Duckie, the loyal friend who had always been in love with her?

And three, when my parents selected the name Lisa for me - it helped that there was a Lisa who was a student that they knew that was incredibly sweet and kind and thoughtful that was attached to the name.  One day I realized that I did know of a student that had gone through school that we knew who went by Andi and she was just the same in my eyes (the sweetest, most down-to-earth, kind to all, mature girl) - it was only fitting a similar connection be made in naming our 2nd daughter.

How did we decide on Ainsley for a middle name?
Well, I like to joke that we look through the baby books and stop on the A's once we find something we like. :)  Hence, why both of our girls have "A" middle names.  There is a bit of truth to this too.
Because Andie is more commonly a boy's name, I wanted something more feminine for a middle name.
I did like the double A and we decided to start there.  We stumbled upon Ainsley, loved it and kept in stride with our usual "if we love it so much why try to keep looking?" motto. :)

And Andie Ainsley it was.