Maile – pronounced “my-lee”
Each island in Hawaii has its own flower and maile is the flower for Kauai, where Christine is from. It is the lei I wore at our wedding – its beautiful and very fragrant.
In addition we decided that both names should come from the maternal side of our family. Maile is in honor of Matt’s maternal grandfather, Milton Sondell. He was a great man, kind, caring, intelligent and hard-working. He would have absolutely loved his great grand daughter!
Matt wearing maile lei at our wedding
Chieko – pronounced “chee-ay-ko”
We agreed early on that our children would have Japanese middle names to honor Christine’s heritage. Chieko is Christine’s maternal grandmother’s name, Mabel Chieko Kugiya. Christine’s Grandma Kugiya was kind-hearted and had many friends – we hope that Maile follows in her footsteps.
If that wasn’t enough, dad was also happy that this wondrous combination means that our daughter’s initials are MC Koidin. So if you know a good DJ, my girl is ready to hit the one-twos…
