Etymology of Ella Nadine
A few of you have asked, so I thought I would explain how we got the name Ella Nadine. Family names, and names of personal significance have always been important to me and to Shelley. When it came time to think about a name for our first little girl, this was the first name that was on our list.
Ella is my grandmother's name. She turns 91 this year and is one of the most feminine, beautiful and classiest women I know. She lives on her own in Northern California and spends her days seemingly with a busier social calendar than I ever had as a single person. As an aside whenever Shelley and I wanted to drive up to see her, we had to book her weeks and sometimes months in advance because her days would fill up with bridge parties, lunches or dinners out, etc. She has a beautiful singing voice and sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, with my Mom, for a number of years. She has held her current calling, chorister, in her ward for over 40 consecutive years. But more than anything she has had to endure a lot of personal pain and trials - losing two husbands. My favorite gift of all time was a personal account of her life written in her own words and handwriting. I plan to share some of those stories to little Ella to let her know of her heritage...class and grace despite significant personal trials.Both of these women are important people in both of our lives and while we know that Ella Nadine has come with her own set of personality characteristics, we feel excited to teach her about the heritage that comes with her name. To that end, here is a quick little video of Shelly starting that "training" - telling Ella Nadine about both Ella and Nadine.
![]() Ella Etymology |










There are studies that show the Japanese population could be cut in half by the end of the century. While I could get into a serious discussion behind the reasons for the lower birth rate and its socio-economic end game, I won't. I want to talk about something infinitely more trivial - a frivolous outgrowth of a latent need to parent something, anything - pet parenting.