What's in a name?

We chose the name Declan months before we even starting trying to get pregnant. Jake doesn't like to hear it but I originally got it from a movie. With our Ireland obsession it seemed like a perfectly natural fit. There was one blog I came across along the way that seemed to think Declan was set to become the next Liam. I certainly didn't want to pick a super popular name but my heart was set so I dismissed it. What does Disney Baby know anyway? So I started doing some research on the name only to discover some facts about it that only reassured me it was the  that we had made the right choice. We aren't really religious but Declan was the saint who brought Christianity to Ireland before St. Patrick. His feast in the Catholic community is on my birthday, July 24th. We actually visited the hermitage and original church of St. Declan in Ardmore, Ireland, which also happens to be where we got engaged.

 As we followed the cliff walk, depicted above, we first wandered through St. Declan's hermitage here:

And then got engaged up on the cliff above before eventually ending up near St. Declan's original church.

I'm not sure why I didn't remember this at the time that we decided on the name but it was a wonderful reminder and made me very glad we'd chosen it.