People ask from time to time where our children got their names. Kevin and I thought long and hard about what to name our kids. I grew up loving the fact that my name has a good story attached to it. I know where it comes from and why it was chosen. I wanted to make sure my kids could know about the stories behind their names, too.

Eli's given name is Ellis Justus. "Ellis" is for Kevin's great grandfather, Ellis Washington Mills. Grampa Mills was a wonderful person, from what I hear, and his legacy in the Simmons family is all of the furniture he made by hand. We have a few pieces in our house. We wanted to give our child a biblical name, so we nicknamed him "Eli" after the prophet. "Justus" was my great grandmother Pearl's last name. The Justus family founded Rabun County, Georgia, I'm told. Justus is also biblical. He was the runner up to fill in the apostle chair left open after Judas defected.

Linden Holly is named after her grandmothers. Kevin's mother Linda died shortly after Eli was born. We really wanted to name her granddaughter as a tribute to that amazing woman, but recognize that she's not a carbon-copy, but her own little person. So we came up with Linden. The linden tree is also known as the tree of justice since it was where court was held in Germany in the olden days. Guitars are made of linden wood. Her middle name is Holly, after my own mother. "Holly" has been one of my favorite names (and favorite people!) my whole life and I am glad to have a daughter to pass that one along to.