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After TikTok users flooded her comments with questions about her daughter’s name, McKenzie Schreiner tells PEOPLE the touching family story behind the choice
NEED TO KNOW
- McKenzie Schreiner posted a TikTok explaining why she gave her daughter an unconventional name after viewers repeatedly asked about it
- She tells PEOPLE the name was inspired by a family middle name tradition, her Christian faith and a realization that made her and her husband stop searching
- While the choice has sparked both praise and criticism online, Schreiner hopes her daughter grows up proud of the meaning behind her name
Long before her daughter was born, McKenzie Schreiner knew she wanted to give her a meaningful name. She just never expected that choice would leave thousands of TikTok viewers asking the same question: Why?
After repeatedly seeing comments asking how she landed on the unconventional name “Love,” the 26-year-old content creator posted a TikTok explaining the story behind it. “We never explored any other name options because Love just felt perfect,” Schreiner tells PEOPLE.
For Schreiner, the journey started with a family tradition she had planned to continue long before she became a mom. She always knew that if she had a daughter, she wanted to pass down the middle name Lea, pronounced Lee, a name she shares with both her mother and her great-grandmother.
She and her husband had also always been drawn to names that felt a little different. Then one day, he suggested the name Love, and everything suddenly fell into place when Schreiner realized the first and middle names together would read as “Lovely.”
“It didn’t fully hit us until I realized Love combined with Lea would make ‘Lovely.’ In that moment, we looked at each other, and we were set,” she says. “We never explored any other name options because Love just felt perfect.”
The meaning only deepened from there. Schreiner says she and her husband wanted a name that reflected the values they hope to pass on to their daughters, and their Christian faith made the choice feel even more fitting.
“Our faith is so important to us, and we teach our girls to be kindhearted, loving people,” she says. “In our eyes, God truly defines ‘Love.’ The word Love is found all throughout the Bible and teachings of ways we should be toward one another.”
Another piece of the story came from Schreiner’s bonus daughter, Scarlett, whose love of hearts became an unexpected inspiration throughout the pregnancy. Whether she was spotting heart-shaped clouds, pieces of food or even gum on the sidewalk, Scarlett seemed to find hearts everywhere she looked.
“Scarlett loves drawing hearts and finds hearts in everything,” Schreiner says. “I believe us choosing the name Love helped Scarlett feel especially bonded to her.”
Since sharing the story online, Schreiner says the response has ranged from overwhelming support to harsh criticism. While she admits the negative comments can sting, she refuses to let strangers define her daughter’s future based on a name.
“People try to judge her future already simply because of her name, which is so sad to me,” she says. “I often tell them she is going to do amazing things in this world.”
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Looking back, Schreiner says the name felt even more right after a difficult 36-hour labor that ended in an emergency C-section. Holding her daughter for the first time, she says, was “the most relieving breath of fresh air,” and she immediately felt they had chosen the perfect name for the little girl who now “makes everyone smile, loves to give hugs and is the happiest girl in the world.”
As her daughter grows up, Schreiner hopes she understands that every part of her name was chosen with intention and love. “We hope she lives life feeling proud of her name, enjoying the love and thought that was put into it and spreads love and good energy to everyone she meets,” she says.
Read the original article on People
