Loïe

When we had Isla, I explained what the meaning was behind her name.  To follow tradition, I thought I would do the same now.

When I was in college I took a History of Architecture and Design class that had literally nothing to do with my major or my after college plans, but turned out to be my favorite class of all four years at BYU.  When we learned about the Art Nouveau period at the turn of the century, we learned of a woman named Loïe Fuller. (Loh-ee) She was a pioneer for modern dance, developed her own dance style, and even invented stage lighting to accent her performances.  She was also the muse for many Art Nouveau painters like Toulouse-Lautrec.  I thought that not only was she such an inspirational woman, but how cool was her name?!  I mean, yes, technically it wasn't her real name, just her french nickname, but I don't care.  I think it is beautiful.

This time around we really wanted to give our daughter a family name for a middle name since neither Isla's first or middle were from family.  Violet Price Passey was my great-grandma's name and actually who my little brother is named after as well.  She was a great woman and lived till she was 99!  A year before she died is when Bart and I started dating.  There was a time during the summer when we both happened to be in UT (I had been home for spring semester and was leaving for hawaii for summer) and we stopped by my great-grandma's house with my family to say hi.  We were holding hands in front of her and all the sudden she asks, "So are you two gettin' hitched?"  To which we just smiled and tried to laugh it off because a) we hadn't even gotten to that point in our relationship (although we were very close to it) and b) my parents were standing right there...awkward! To this day we always laugh that she knew we were going to get married even before we did.

So her name is Loïe Violet Frandsen.  (And yes, formally we are using the umlaut!)