her name.

I think when you know, you know.
At least I do.
Well...by "know" I mean, stop searching when you find it.
A name I mean...for one's offspring.

Cale was never going to be anything other than Cale.  In fact, I don't even think we were pregnant when Tim suggested the name to me.  I'm not sure I  did much looking at all for anything else before we found out the gender.  And once we knew it was a boy, we also knew his middle - to be named after Tim.
Megersa was going to be Jace.
If you're interested enough to look back to our adoption process before we got our referral, I did refer to M as Jace for a time.  I thought it fit well with Cale and could picture it being used on our little brown boy. :)
But after seeing his little face, and saying his Ethiopian name over and over to people, I thought...well, why not keep it?  Or if not that, then at least an Ethiopian name.  I did some looking for one we might have liked better, but decided there really wasn't one, and ultimately decided we'd keep his name.
...Though I do think the name Henok is cool for anyone considering Ethiopian adoption! ;)
The twins.
MORE boys.
I did a little girl name research before that 12 week ultrasound where they let me know we were getting 2 more doses of testosterone our way...but of course, nothing solid.
I worked as a nurses aide for several years before we were married and that first year or so after.
So I became accustomed to old man names...and became quite a fan of their strength, and unpopularness (is that a word?)
There was just the sweetest old fat man name Thad.  All of the aides affectionately referred to him as 'Thaddy-Daddy.'
"How about Thaddeus?"  I asked Tim.
"I knew a Thad once...he was cool.  I like it....it sounds epic."
Excellent!! :)
One twin named.
One more to go.
I was/am still quite fond of the name Marshall.
Tim seemed okay with it, but I sensed it wasn't his favorite.
.....Okay, so you know when you're trying to come up with a name for your child, and your spouse suggests some name that you dont like?  So you give them that look like you smelled something bad?
Well, I don't care for that.
I told Tim he couldn't make faces anymore, but just needed to give me a rating from 1-10.
He gave Marshall a 6.
Well, that's no good.  In my opinion, it's gotta be at least an 8.
Zachery?
Zac.  Thad and Zac?  They sounded good together.....
But we kept getting the comment: "Oh, that's a pretty common name compared to your other boys..."
And when I like a name, I don't really care what other people say.  When I commit to it, I mean.
A close family member ridiculed the name Cale when first told: "It sounds like a fish."
Didn't care.
But the comments about the name Zac did bug me.  Because I was sorta thinking the same thing.  So, I kept looking...
I remember it was around Christmas-time 2010, and I was blogging a ton.  Reading other blogs too, which I rarely do now... but a link from a friends blog to another blog got me curious.
This new blogger was a good writer and I got caught up in her family.
Her oldest was named Shepherd.
Yep.
Oh, I got a crush on that name.
"Shepherd??  Rate it." 
"Do we really want to change his name again?"  was Tim's reply - but I gave him my most pitiful/hopeful look and he said he'd think about it.
Not long after, the great people of Facebook weighed in on their opinions of Shepherd vs Zachery.
Hands down were votes for Shepherd.
And I won was relieved to have found it.  My 4th son's name.  We stopped looking.

Fast forward to this pregnancy.
Knowing how good ultrasound techs are in this day and age I knew if there was any girl name searching to be done, it'd have to be before that...because if they announced it was another boy, well that was most likely it for us.  And I wouldn't get to ask google for help on baby girl's name...
We found out about the pregnancy at around 6 weeks...so that gave us about 6 more weeks to find a name.
Okay, not really us...me.
I present the name...Tim gives me a rating.  That's our system.  And it works.
Poppy was the yardstick by which to measure a potential daughters name.
I still love it, but we are passing on it.
I love that it reminds me of MY Poppy who passed away just before we found out we were pregnant with Cale (his first great-grandchild).  I like that it's earthy - it's literally the name of a red flower.
It's spunky but pretty - how I pictured a daughter of mine to be.
But it had drawbacks.  My DAD chose to assume the name Poppy as his grandfather name.  I was sorta hoping he'd choose something else, because I associated the name with his father...but he didn't.
And I thought it might be weird.
Tim and I went back and forth on this... Then there's the potential for the mean nickname of Poopy. :(
Yeah, I know...it's a little funny, but certainly wouldn't be funny for her..............
and I wasn't sure how it would translate to an adult name.
Still, we held it in highest regards.  I kept looking though...
Other top contenders:
Clementine (much more my favorite than Tim's - drawback for me: no clear nickname)
Dove (nixed because Dove Nester - dove in a nest?)
Primrose (nixed because of the movie Hunger Games and it's popularity with me not being a die-hard fan...and the potential for the nn Rosie.  I don't know why I don't like it....)
Bay (definitely earthy...spunky, but I don't know...not enough of a name?)
Back to Poppy.
I liked it a lot. I really did.  I got countless opinions on the name...mainly in favor of it, but...I figured I might as well keep doing the research in case there was a name that we liked better.
I'm sure it's just the movies influence...but I did actually ask Tim if he liked the name Snow.  It's true.  We both did like it, but quickly decided we couldn't take that sort of leap with our daughters name.
We weren't that big of hippies. ;)
Haha.

Oh, at some point in all my research I found out we were indeed having a little girl....so that just intensified my search.
Had this been a boy...here were the names we sort of agreed on:
Malak Kade
Hogarth Kade
Oz Bartholemew
Yeah...for real. ;)

But she's a she...and in my opinion, a she name is a lot hard to come by!!
Oh, the hours I spent searching for her name............
Well, lets just say - it was a bit time consuming.
I wanted something NON-trendy.  Not in the top 50 most popular names...or even the top 100 if I could help it.  I looked at a million baby name sites, searched through the Bible - for females or even cool sounding places... Walked in our side yard (which happens to be a graveyard) to read all the tombstones hoping for inspiration.  Had a "pronunciation guide" bookmarked on my laptop to hear how someone else would say a name... grilled my teacher friends/families for their best girl names (or popular ones to avoid)...and asked dozens of others for suggestions on "unique but feminine" girl names...
And I was still lacking.  I sorta thought we may end up settling.
Or  we'd be that couple who gives birth and still has nothing to call their kid.
No.  We wouldn't do that...haha.  I'm not sure how that even happens.
Don't get me wrong...I LIKE a lot of names...but liking isn't loving.
And you gotta put some love, care and consideration into someone else's name.
They'll have it for life.
It'll define them.
And I want one solid one...not a selection of "favorites" - because I hear this "we waited to see him/her before we decided."  Well...what if Mom thinks she looks like a Sally and Dad thinks she looks like a Penelope?  Then what?  I was determine to avoid all of that.

The perfect name was out there...I just needed to keep looking.
One night, as I sat on my bed...still looking at baby name blogs/sites...I googled "winter baby girl names"  I found this name:
Neve.  The Italian word for snow.
Snow?  How funny!
I got that feeling...............
It fit the bill:
It was short (and I was secretly hoping for a short name to match Cale - seeing as how all the other brothers have long names)...
It was certainly unique.  Only other Neve I know is Neve Cambell from the old show 'Party of Five.'  It was spunky, but feminine. 
I liked the alliteration of Neve Nester.
Though meanings aren't terribly important, I don't want it to mean something like "horse farm" - and it didn't...
Neve means "bright and radiant."

Awesome.... because she will be.

I had to text Tim.
I'm not sure I asked him to rate it...just said that I was pretty sure I found her name and listed the above reasons I liked it so much.
He seemed interested and said he'd think on it.
I questioned a friend to see what she thought.  She said she didn't care much for it...
But...that didn't bother me!
So.  That was it for me, another sign. ;)
Just had to wait on the hubby.
While he was at work the next day I asked him if he was ready to commit to the name cuz I was.  Commit meaning announce it on facebook.  :) lol.  He was.
And so I did.  
Her middle name will be Eloise.
We like namesakes for middles...and there is one lady whom I know I always remember.
So, as a nod to her, may I "announce" the fact that Neve Eloise Nester finally has a name.

Yes, before she is born.
No, we are not planning on changing it.
Because I know - and I have not looked at one other name since finding it. ;)

*Oh, and it's pronounced Nev, but we like the extra e on the end.  
Too bad if you don't. :)