A Girl Named ...

Annalee Linn Kasowski. 

Our second daughter. Her name was quite a conundrum for many months. We had lots of ideas but no front runner. Annalee came out towards the end as our fitting choice. And we are so excited to have her here to speak her name for years to come. 

From our teasers, some explanation:

Her name honors Maelee. 

The lee was added to Anna to honor Maelee, Annalee's big sister. 

Her name honors a family member. 

Similar to how we came up with Maelee using my grandma's middle name, Greg's dad's mom's middle name is Anna. We love Grandma Kasowski and love this connection to her. We thought her middle name was actually Ann until we were there last month and saw the birth certificate (and that got us rolling down this track): 

Marian Anna

Plus, her middle name honors lots of family! My mom, my sister, my nieces, myself and Maelee. We are the Linn ladies. 

Her name has a pretty good meaning. 

Anna is derived from Hannah which is from the Hannah in the Bible. Means "favored by grace" or "graceful". 

Lee means "pasture" and so together I guess Annalee means "graceful pasture". And I can say with firsthand knowledge that North Dakota has a zillion of beautiful, graceful pastures!

Her name is unique but not overly complicated in spelling or pronunciation. 

We tossed around going with just Anna or Annie or Anne or other variations but we like this more unique/complicated name. But it shouldn't be too hard to pronounce. We say it quickly so it almost sounds like Emily or Annie. 

Her name sounds good with Kasowski.

I just love the -ee sound with our last name. Annalee Kasowski. That's a great name.

Her name has a shout out to the South. 

Nothing says sweet southern belle like a good double name! So there's a little tribute to our years in the south.

-Heather