Baby Mason’s name is…

Camryn Amelia Mason.  The name we kept a secret from everyone for 9 months.  Our families especially were dying to know the name of our baby girl.  We wouldn’t budge.  Our friends tried to guess the name, some of which were hilarious, but we still wouldn’t give it up.  I wanted to share why we chose this name and why we kept it to ourselves. 

Why we chose Camryn Amelia

When Weston and I were dating, we often talked about getting married and dreamed of our future family.  Even all the way back to when we met, we knew the first name of our future daughter. 

In 2002, tragedy struck the Mason household.  The sweet baby Weston’s mom had been carrying for almost 9 months was suddenly lifeless.  She had managed to tie her umbilical cord in a knot and was no longer getting the nutrients she needed to stay alive.  Her name was Camryn Wynn Mason.  In the hospital on June 11, Camryn’s birthday, a tender-hearted 12-year-old Weston made the sweetest promise to his mom.  He vowed that he would name his future daughter after her. 

Weston told me this story within a few days of us meeting.  When he told me her birthdate, I froze.  That was MY birthday, too!  As strange as it sounds, that’s the moment I knew Weston and I would get married.  It was just a feeling I had.  I shrugged it off at first.  How could I already think about marrying someone I literally just met?  We were not even dating! 

Once we did start dating and talking about getting married, we also started picking out baby names.  One for a girl and one for a boy.  We had both a first and middle name picked out for a boy.  That was easy.  For a girl, I was absolutely willing to name our daughter Camryn!  There’s no way I could keep Weston from fulfilling that promise to his mom.  We threw out a few ideas for middle names to go with Camryn, but nothing felt right.  It wasn’t until we actually got pregnant that we decided on a middle name for a girl. 

As we cuddled in the hammock one afternoon, we decided to make a list of middle names we liked for Camryn.  We went through the entire alphabet.  At one point, our list had over 30 names we liked.  Over the next few days, we narrowed it down until we were left with only one.  Camryn Amelia.  Shortly after Camryn was born, we discovered that I had two family members named Amelia.  One of them died on August 30 in the 1800s.  What are the odds that Amelia died on August 30 and Camryn Amelia was born on August 30?

Why we kept her name a secret

With both the boy and girl names having such a sentimental meaning for us and so many of our friends announcing pregnancies, we decided to keep the names a secret.  From everyone.  We didn’t want to risk it at all.  Baby name stealing is real and we live in a small town, so I wanted to make sure no one else would have our baby’s name. 

I have witnessed people tell expectant parents that the names they chose were terrible and try to discourage them from going with those names.  As opinionated as people have been about my growing belly, I had a feeling they would be opinionated about our baby names too.  I didn’t want to give an opportunity for unwanted feedback about the names we chose.  This is our baby’s name and if you don’t like it, keep your opinion to yourself.

I thought it would be special to have something that was just between me and Weston.  I was right!  We don’t regret keeping our baby names a secret.  I’m glad we did it and we will probably do it again for any future children.  If you don’t like that we have been secretive throughout our pregnancy, the good news is that you can do things your way for your own baby.  This is how we chose to celebrate our baby and it made the experience more special for us.

When we shared her name

When we shared her initials, we knew both of our families would know her first name.  Some of our close friends would know, too.  We had shared baby names with them nearly a decade ago, so they may or may not have remembered.  We didn’t confirm or deny their suspicions.  I almost chickened out of sharing the initials because I wanted everyone to be in suspense.  You can all thank Weston for pushing me to share the initials because even as we were taking the announcement photo, I didn’t want to share them. 

It was such a surreal moment for us to share our girl’s name with our families in the hospital.  In a perfect world, we would have been able to share the name with both sets of parents and all of our brothers at the same time.  Unfortunately, none of our 5 brothers were able to come to the hospital on Camryn’s birthday.  We still got to share her name with them either through FaceTime or the following day in person.

Baby Camryn, you are so loved by so many!  We are incredibly blessed to have you and so many caring people in our lives!