What's in a name ?

When I was pregnant with Will and we were discussing boy names, Kent used to make fun of me for some of my name suggestions stating they were names that reminded me of home. For example:

Grant:  the name of the county in Indiana where I grew up.

Anderson:  A city about 45 minutes away from my home town.

Taylor:  The name of the college where my mom teaches. 

When I was pregnant this time and we were tossing around girl names, I suggested Kendall. He reminded me that was the name of the elementary school where my grandma Tyner taught for many years.  

The crazy thing is that I truly liked all of these names and it had nothing to do with my home state.  

 We decided to name our baby girl Whitley.  A unique name for sure.  I think it caught most people off guard and they would say, "Where did you get that name?" My response was always,  "It kind of just popped in my head."  It was the name I suggested to Kent the day we found out we were having a baby girl.  It was the only name that stayed on our list of girl names the whole pregnancy when other names would go on and off of the list.  

Whitley Jane was nameless for almost 2 days.  I blame that on the fact that she came 15 days early but truthfully it was because I had to process through picking a unique name and almost give myself permission to do so.  

Well, the story gets more interesting.  It wasn't too long after Whitley was born that someone pointed out there is a Whitley county in Indiana.  Not only is there a Whitley county, it is only two counties away from Grant county!  CRAZY!  I am sure that at some point in my life I knew this but it was no where in my train of thought when picking Whitley's name.  

Since naming Whitley, I have found the name two other places.  

1.  My Aunt Stephanie (who lives in Indianapolis) texted me a picture of a street sign near her house for Whitley Lane.

2.  I was writing with a pen my parents left at my house for the BMW dealership in Indianapolis where they bought their Mini Cooper and the dealership is on Whitley Drive.  

I guess there is a connection between the name Whitley and my home state of Indiana after all :)  Now Kent really has something to make fun of me about. 

The above image isn't the best quality but it is a picture of the top half of the state of Indiana