Some of you are here because my wife directed you here to find the story behind the name of our new daughter, Markaye LaNea Brown.  Here’s how she almost became “LaNevalice”.  When our oldest boy Kevin was approaching, we were hunting through names. We settled on girl names first. Amber Alicia (which we got on the 4th try), and Markaye LaNea (which was the 5th).  A girl in my high school was named Markaye and I thought it was a pretty name.  We both liked it, and after several days of pondering it we realized that it was a concatenation of the two grandmothers - Alicia’s mom Margene, and my mother Kaye.  So the name was a done deal at that point - so long as she decided to show up.  We also thought LaNea fit well with Markaye. LaNea is my dad’s mother. 

When Markaye was finally born, I was proud of how her name had captured 3 grandmothers.  Then I realized that just a slight change to “LaNevalice” would get them all!  Evelyn Foster is Alicia’s mother’s mother.  Maurene Gorringe was her father’s step mother.  Alice Gorringe her father’s real mother.  Alice Gourley is my mother’s mother.  And of course, Alicia, Markaye’s mother, also is included.  So in one feld swoop her name would include large portions of her mother’s name, her two grandmother’s, and all 5 great grandmothers!  I was feeling a bit left out, but then realized that Markaye starts with M, and so does Mike, so there you go.

I was seriously tempted.  I know she’d never divulge her middle name if it were LaNevalice, but I thought when she’s older it would give her reason to think of her grandmothers, and the story itself might be endearing.

I should just do it.  We’ve already had to change her birth certificate twice, so maybe the third time’s the charm.  First, we planned to spell it MarKaye LaNea with a capital K.  The birth certificate people thought I left too much space between the letters, and the printed copy came in as “Mar Kaye La Nea”. So we called and they changed it.  Later I realized as I wrote her name in cursive that I had to lift the pen to make the K, so it really looked like her first name was just Mar.  To avoid complicating her life, we called again to change to lower case.

So why not a third time?  We haven’t blessed her yet, so I tell Alicia she’ll never really know what the middle name is until the Spirit directs!  We’ll soon see….

So as you can see below we definitely have a Full House (a winning poker hand, that is - 3 Kings and 2 Queens!).  She’s a “Fabulous” addition.  We’ve got our hands full now, and it feels like I’ll flop at times - especially if Alicia keeps pulling the ball.  Luckily we have our trusty dog Shadow to chase off friends, neighbors, and relatives.

What a happy, wonderful family we have.  It’s a great time to be alive!

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