What's in a name? {Part 2}

Yesterday I told the strange saga of my middle name. 

And at the end, I promised the grand revealing of baby girl #2's middle name.

But here's the problem: I can't decide.

On the name, that is.

I'm having a conundrum, if you will {if, in fact, one can have a conundrum. I think one might need to be in a conundrum}.

Here is part one of my conundrum:

Like I said before, my middle name is Marie and my grandma's first name is Maria. 

They have the same root and mean the same thing. Guess what their root name is? Mary.

Guess who's name is Mary? My mother-in-law's! Ding-ding-ding! 

When I had this realization, I got really excited, especially since none of the first names on our list go with Marie {or Maria, for that matter}. I decided to look up the meaning and see if there was another {read: more fitting} name that means the same thing. 

At the top of the list: Mae! 

I love it. It's short, sweet, and old-fashioned.

To make it even more special, we recently found out {well, I found out and Jeff remembered} that his grandmother's middle name was Mae. And she just passed away a couple of weeks ago. I think this would be a sweet way to honor her memory. 

Conundrum: Mary/Marie/Maria/Mae all mean bitter. I'm not a fan. 

Enter conundrum #2: 

 Sadie's middle name is Lynn {after my mom and Jeff's dad}. 

Sadie means princess, and Lynn means pretty or beautiful.

So translated and reversed, her name means pretty princess. 

Isn't that sweet?

We did not do this on purpose. 

I knew that Sadie meant princess when we named her, but didn't

know what Lynn meant until I looked it up the other day.

Conundrum: I kind of feel like it would be cruel and unusual to have one daughter's name mean

pretty princess and the other daughter's name mean "something" bitter, even if it is a family name. 

So, alas, now I can't decide. I would love to honor Jeff's grandma in such a special way. I won't go into detail, but I think she would be overwhelmed knowing that her grandchildren can look beyond her past and love her regardless of the mistakes she made. 

Enter middle name option #2 and with it, conundrum #3: Adeline, which I recently found out is also a family name.

It was my great-grandmother's name {rumor has it that she didn't like it, so she went by her middle name, Mildred, or "Millie"}. 

I never met my great-grandma Millie; she passed away when my dad was 16.

But everyone speaks highly of her. Especially my dad.

You see, she was his saving grace. 

His refuge, if you will, from a home that was--how shall I put it tactfully?--unpleasant, to say the least. 

He loved her very much and must have been devastated when she died. 

I know my dad would  feel so honored to have a granddaughter named after his sweet grandma. Someone to keep her memory alive.

It would truly mean the world to him. 

Especially since if I ever have a son, he'll probably be named after Jeff {Sadie would have been Liam Jeffrey and this one would have been Grayson Jeffrey}, so unless either of my brothers name their kids after my dad, he may not have any grandchildren named after him. 

And to boot, Adeline means noble. A name that seems fitting for my great grandma. 

Conundrum #3: honor Jeff's family or mine?

 I don't really like Adeline as a first name, so Adeline Mae is out of the question {though it is cute!}.