Jasmiina and jasmines..

Today is Jasmiina's (Jasmīna's) Latvian nameday! :)

Namedays in Latvia are a big deal, and I love it.. You know I love celebrations, and I always had a very cool nameday party. So I'm planning to definitely continue with that, especially as Estonians don't really care about namedays at all. 

Today was a calm day, but we still wanted to invite someone to help eat the cake (no-bake lemon cheesecake). ;) And my Mother-in-law exactly happened to come, so it was a nice little celebration day.

I realized I haven't told yet, why do our girls have the names they do. 

I have had baby names ready as long as I can remember. ;) They have changed over time. With the current names I came up in autumn 2013, had a lot of free time back then.. They weren't set in stone, I had many possible options. But with time they became certain, especially once I was finally pregnant. We were quite sure, it was like.. so.. Adelaide? Yes, Adelaide. It felt right. Our firstborn daughter.

So I came up with the name, I'm not even quite sure where it came from (but I was watching Australia's Next Top Model :D ), it's not popular neither in Latvia nor Estonia (there are a couple of Adelaides in Estonia, and a couple of AdelaidAs in Latvia, Adeele is a popular similar name in Estonia), people usually haven't heard it much before. But it is easy to spell in both languages and fits into both grammars well, which was important to us.

Overally for my girls I have always wanted a name that is long and beautiful, and quite rare, but same time a classic name, not some weird made-up one. Maybe because that's how my own name is, in Latvia it is quite rare, same time it has a classic base (it is even mentioned in Bible). 

Also the meaning behind the name is important. Adelaide: From the French form of the Germanic name Adalheidis, which was composed of the elements adal "noble" and heid "kind, sort, type". It was borne in the 10th century by Saint Adelaide, the wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great. The name became common in Britain in the 19th century due to the popularity of the German-born wife of King William IV, for whom the city of Adelaide in Australia was named in 1836.

And Jasmiina (or Jasmīna in Latvian) also was between my chosen names at 2013, however, I always knew it wasn't meant for the firstborn, but - obviously - for the second. Because as soon as I was pregnant, it again was like.. So, Jasmiina? Yes, Jasmiina. :) 

I have always had special feelings about jasmines, the ones that grow in Latvia and Estonia.. (They are not the real jasmines, but actually - philadelphus or mock-orange, but here we call them jasmines.) We had a huge white bush in front of our house, when I was growing up.. It blooms around the time of my birthday, my favorite time of the year - those magical, fresh June evenings.. I used to watch outside the window and feel that amazing smell. I wanted to get married during the time when there's jasmines, and we actually did have them at our wedding!

Interestingly, around that time I still didn't plan to name any of my babies Jasmines, but later this name became clear as well. I really believe that the right name comes to you, at least if you let it.

Meaning of Jasmiina seems simple - the flower.. But I found, that it has even better meaning behind that! Jasmine comes from the old Persian “yasamin”, which means ‘gift from God’ and refers to the flowering plant of the olive genus.

We definitely have chosen the right names for our little princesses. :)