Picking a baby name was not easy. I’ll be 100 with you…I put wayyy more effort and time into picking our daughter’s name than the majority of dudes/dads I know.
…and I’m okay with that. Let’s start this off right, so if you ever get the chance to hang out with us, you can be well-equipped to handle the Williams Clan and their savagery…lol

My go to is “muh-lee-uh” on how to write it out. Think “muh” like “mud,” “lee” as is “Leeroy” (ohhhhh, ya see something there! haha), and “uh” like, “uh, I hope I’m saying this correctly.”
Now that you’re saying it correctly, let’s get started on the background of the name!

The first time I heard the name, “Melia,” was when I started my internship at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). My senior year, I chose to intern at a HeadStart program where I was able to shadow teachers in the program and help out with anything they needed for themselves and the children. Of all the little “TaterTots” in the class, there was one little girl that made my heart just melt daily.
Can you guess her name? Yup…Melia.

Every time I saw this little girl, she was always so positive. Happy, excited, enjoyed life. Event when she was sick! I’m talking coughing up a lung (they’re babies! They don’t know the best way to sneeze/cover up them germs from Fast-n-Furious-ing straight into your face! I’m talkin’ boogers running down her face…still smiling, still happy. I couldn’t get her happiness and good vibes out of my head.

So having this name in my head all this time, you can fast-forward to Samantha and I figuring out names for our little one. You know – typical parents doing name origins on Google. We did it too…lol – I did a little research on the name, and one of those gut-feelings just kinda hit me. You know…chills/vibes/universe and stars aligning kind feeling. When I looked at the details of the name, I found out that had Hawaiian origin which was super dope because…well, I lived there!

Yup…having a father in the Navy, we traveled a lot. We lived on the island of Oahu during my elementary school days, and let me tell you…I still feel spoiled/blessed/lucky to have had that moment in my life growing up.

Did you know the Hawaiian meaning of the name Melia is Plumeria. Whaaaaaa?? Did you know that in the Hawaiian culture, this flower symbolizes positivity; so if you get the chance to walk off the airplane and they lei you 😉 (lol), they want you to have a even more positive experience on your trip?

MIND BLOWN!

So, not only is there a connection from college, and my childhood, but when I met my wife, and found out what her grandmother, Nancy called her as a nickname, I knew we were going to keep this name.

“PETUNIA”

That’s what Samantha’s grandmother (Nancy) would call her any time they got to hang out. The funny thing about Nancy, is that we always talked about “grandbabies” (as Nancy would call them), and I would throw in my little BonBon/Milk Dud jokes because I wanted her to know that color means nothing. I am confident in who I am, and we (my wife and I) are strong parents who will have to be stronger for our little one.
You can imagine the sadness that fell over the family when we got the news that she was no longer with us, but Nancy was amazing! She wanted us to live our best life, and make sure to love each and every day.

“Always bring out the best in each other.” That is the vibe I got from Nancy any time I got to be with her. She brought the laughter, and was able to bring all the sass.

So, as we came down to finally making a decision on the name, everything around me was telling me that this was the name for our little one (who, by the way, we didn’t know the gender until she arrived!). The stars aligned, the universe was telling us, “this is the name!”

God, the universe, whatever you believe in puts things in our lives when we are ready. There’s no denying that. I believe that everything that has happened in our lives led us to where we are today. We are new parents, and we’re going to have success…and we’re going to have failure.

But one thing we will always have for Melia (and hey, any future TaterTots coming our way) as we gain experience as parents is…

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

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