How we chose the name McKell

In late April we found out we were having a girl, which ended our debate about naming a boy Dougls Daly III. We threw around ideas for a couple of weeks without really telling anyone, because we still hadn't revealed to the family we were having a girl. One night I went to bed early and D stayed up, I thought it was to play computer games. The next morning he came to me with a huge smile on his face and a list of about 12 names that he liked. He had even looked up what they all mean! We didn't exactly agree on a name but instead chose 2 names and decided to wait until we met her to decide. He like Juliette and I chose Allyson. It was fun to see which family members liked which names.
After 48 hours of hard labor and a c-section at 3am, we decided to wait a little while before chosing a name for her. I still had some anesthesia in me, and I wasn't thinking clearly enough for such a big decision. In the days following her birth we were very rarely alone, between nurses, family and friends it took 2 full days before we had a chance to sit down and talk about it. Both of us knew immediately the name Juliette didn't fit. If she had been born dainty and quietly it would have been great, but this little girl was a fighter. He suggested we name her Allyson Lee, using the name that I wanted and my middle name as a tribute to all that we went through as mother and daughter to bring her into this world. But Allyson just didn't seem to fit either. We felt like she was such a strong girl and had been through so much to come into the world, she needed a tough girl name. As a random thought under anesthesia I said "I like the name Mikel" but it wasn't something we had even thrown out on the table as an option. One of our midwives was named Michel (pronounced the same and McKell) and we had said a couple times what a pretty name it was, but we didn't like the way it was spelled either way. So in Irish tradition we used the Mc instead. In old Ireland the Mc like in McDonald meant "child of" Donald. The same goes for a girl's name like McKenzie which would translate into child of Kenzie. So for our little girl McKell means daughter of Kell! Traditionally the name McKell is the female version of Michael, which means "one who is like God". I don't think there is anything more like the divine than a newborn baby.
Her middle name, Carisse, is in honor of Doug's maternal grandmother who passed away a few years ago.