To preface this, naming a kid is hard ya’ll. Between associating names to people from the past, to potential horrible nicknames, to just plain disdain, it’s a miracle any of us have names!
Like any rationally minded person, I’ve been collecting baby names since I was probably 20 years old. Anytime, I stumbled upon one I loved I would save it to a notepad list on my phone to ensure it wouldn’t be something I’d forget.
Over the years I had collected well over 40+ names, going back every once and awhile and removing ones that had gotten too popular (RIP Harper and Liam 🙁 ). I still had my favorites but when I got pregnant and Tim and I sat down to go through them, the list started to dwindle and quickly.
Luckily we did agree on a handful of girl and boy names, with Aveline being a top favorite of both of ours. We decided we wouldn’t make any official decisions until we saw her, but it was definitely our leading contender.
I first saw the name Aveline (pronounced AV-uh-leen) on a website years ago. It was one of those 20 Unique French name type of articles, which are total clickbait, so naturally I clicked through. As I scrolled through the Eloise’s and Bertrande’s, I came upon Aveline and immediately fell in love. I had never seen or heard the name before and I just thought it was so elegant.
Growing up I always liked being one of the only Corinne’s and really wanted to give my children unique names as well.
Aveline is of French origin and means hazelnut and wished-for or longed-for child. While I’m not too into name meanings, I did think there was something very sweet about this, as she was quite “longed-for”.
A lot of people have asked what nicknames there are for Aveline and while there aren’t any specific nicknames, in our minds that’s part of the fun. Corinne doesn’t have many nicknames either, yet I still grew up with Cornine, Wholius, and Jules, and while Timothy has Timmy or Tim, his favorite nickname, given to him by his father, is Tigger.
As for her middle name, Grace was my Great Grandmother’s name on my mother’s side. I’ve always loved the name Grace and thought it paired perfectly with Aveline. I also really liked the idea of carrying on a family name, and we have a few more in our pocket for potential future children.
So there you have it! The story behind the name.
Naming a child might be hard, but as soon as we saw her we knew she was our little Aveline. 🙂
