Scout's Name

Many people have asked where we came up with Scout's name.  Some simply assume its from the book, "To Kill a Mockingbird".  Although my husband and I both like that book and I thoroughly relate to the characteristics (intelligent, thoughtful, confident, fights with boys, and is essentially a tomboy) of the Scout character in that book, that is not where her name originated. 

While my husband was attending training for 16 weeks, I needed a weekly gut check.  It would have been easy to feel sorry for myself...pregnant, juggling a 3 year old, trying to sell a house, and only seeing my husband 48 hours each week.  I kept reminding myself that military spouses have it soooo much worse.  Then God supported my gut check by sending a tv show my way.  Its called "Coming Home" on Lifetime.  Its about the homecoming and reunification, often a surprise, of military families.  There wasn't one week that I watched it with a dry eyes.  The week two episode rang true even more for me.  Sure, my husband was absent 5 days a week and missing the last half of my pregnancy.  However, he was around some and would be there for his daughter's birth.  The week two episode featured a father who would be returning from a year long deployment and meeting his 2.5 month old daughter for the first time.  He had essentially missed all of his wife's pregnancy and even his daughter's birth.  I bawled.  The baby, a little girl with fair skin and dark hair, was named Scout.  The name rang out to me.  I knew my husband would either love it or hate it.  He loved it.  He loved it so much that week after week, he let me know it was still his favorite until he finally told me that I would have a hard time getting him to agree to naming her anything other than Scout.  I realized then how much he truly did love that name.  I also realized how much I loved the idea him being so steadfast about her name.  I wasn't going to mess with that.  So, we named her Scout Gracyn Fletcher. 

The middle name...it was one that was on the list of first names at some point.  After we settled on Scout, we threw around a few middle names.  I wanted her to have something different, yet feminine.  We also toyed with a middle name that has a little bit of meaning to us.  It all boiled down to the morning she was born.  On the way to the hospital, we were dropping her brother off at school so he could have his normal routine until it was time for him to meet his sister.  As we drove, I asked him which name he liked: Gracyn or the other name.  He very boldly and frankly said "Gracyn! I like that name!" and there you have it, that is how she got her middle name. 

The defined meaning of the name Scout depends on which source you prefer.  Some will tell you it means "listener" while others will tell you it means "observer". 

Want to see the little one that our Scout is named after?  You can see her in two places...
Here:  The blog of Scout's mom
and Here: Pic of Scout

It was only after I had Scout did I realize all their physical similarities...I went to the web searching for photos of her and found those listed above...and was simply brought to tears.