A week after the surprise discovery that we were expecting our fourth child, we had already decided on a name for each sex. Our three daughters weren’t overly thrilled with the first name we had chosen for a girl. But we figured that we would wait until our ultrasound to stress over whether we wanted to make a change or not.
The weeks came and went, and the day for the ultrasound arrived. We were told we were having daughter number four. The news was incredibly devastating to our youngest, who had built up her hopes for a brother in spite of our suspicions that it was indeed another girl. By this time, she was the only one who still didn’t care for the girl name we had chosen, so we knew it was time to get down to business and decide if there were other options.
I had been tossing around the name Megan for a girl, but I liked it spelled with a “y” – M-E-G-Y-N. My husband, Tony, wasn’t sure about the name because he had a cousin named Megan and didn’t know if he wanted to duplicate. Because twins run in my family and because I LOVE picking out names, I always enjoy thinking about possibilities for two boys, two girls or one of each. I was trying to talk Tony into Rylan or Riley for a twin alternative. He determined early on that if we were to have a child named Riley it would be for a girl, not a boy.
A week after the ultrasound, our family of five was sitting at Steak ‘n’ Shake and discussion turned to the baby’s name. We talked about various combinations and finally Tony’s eyes lit up and half joking, he said he MIGHT be able to consider Megyn if we said she was named after Megan Kelly on Fox News. He googled her name on his phone to show me who she was and low and behold, we discovered that her name was spelled with a “y”, exactly the way that I preferred. It seemed like a sign.
Then Tony got a mischievous glint in his eye and said, “Hey, you liked the name Riley. We could name her after Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly and call her Megan Riley!” We laughed about it but for the rest of the day, we tossed it around in our minds and aloud. My hang up was the fact that we had started a pattern without realizing it. Our first daughter’s name started with a “B” and each of the other two daughter’s middle names started with “B”. I wasn’t sure I wanted to break that pattern with our last child. Each daughter also had an unusual name and a more common name. Megan Rylee didn’t exactly fit that criterion.
Several hours later, getting ready for bed at 1 a.m. my mind was still swirling and we were still saying the name, “Megyn Rylee”. Thinking out loud, I mused, “What if we combined the “B” from Bill and the “riley” from O’Reilly and made Briley?” It would fit the pattern of the middle name with a “B” and the common name combined with the unusual. Again, Tony googled the name Briley to see if there was such a name and how we would spell it. I consulted the baby name books lying on the floor beside the bed. One had the name; the other didn’t. And though I’d never personally HEARD anyone with the name, there were several spelling variations to choose from.
Over the course of the next few days, we finally decided on Megyn Brylee – and that is how two Fox News reporters were the inspiration for our fourth daughter’s name!
