What's in a name?

So, we get a lot of questions on how we came to Madeline's name and what we call her. Well, when Madeline was born, we had two names in mind: Madeline Olivia and Emily Leeann. When we were talking to her and looking at her, we said both names to her. She didn't respond to Emily. But she did respond to Madeline, so we went with that name. A pretty simple approach, we thought.

As for how we came to Madeline Olivia- We have no known family members with either of those names. We both decided that we will not name any children that we have after anyone in our families or anything like that. On Erin's side of the family, there are way to many juniors and so we did not want that! We both really liked the name Olivia, but we know a family where their last daughter's name is Olivia. We didn't want her to have the same name as their daughter. When we came up with Madeline, we liked the way that it sounded with Olivia.

With all of that, what do we call her? Madeline. We decided that if she wants to be called Maddie at a later time in life, that's her choice to make. So, we are calling her Madeline, otherwise why give her a name and not use it?