Clay was named after my husband's father whose name was Clayton Charles. We did continue my husband's middle name which is a family name Caryl (pronounced Carol) but his initials are the same as his grandfather CC. His grandfather was either called Charlie or CC and never Clay. Tara was a compromise because Itch and Clay didn't like any of the names I had picked out. I just liked Susan for a middle name and liked that her initials were TSE because I love TS Elliot, the author. Besides we had only 3 hours to come up with the name. They called at 9 AM and we had to be in the twin cities (200 miles away) by 1:00 with a name.

Elliot I just liked, his middle name is after my b.i.l. whom we lost while I was pregnant. Our last name starts with a T so I was not thrilled with his initials being E.T. while also having the name Elliot but I figured nobody his age would really watch that movie. Then when he was in kindergarten they did a huge re-release of the movie. LOL. A side note, on the E.T. ride at Disney they have everyone put in their names when in line and at the end E.T. reads them all off, it's super fast and computer sounding but when it got to Elliot's name he said it very loud and slow just like in the movie when he says it. That was cute. Carly was the only name we could agree on, her middle name is Danielle after her dad. I always wanted the name Corinne but was afraid everyone would pronounce it wrong.(i wanted it as in not een) Ethan again was the only thing we both liked, I didn't want two E names but we couldn't think of anything else. His middle name is my dad's name and I am so glad my dad was able to still understand that when we did it.