Josh and Anna Duggar Honor Their Late Grandma Mary With Baby No. 6’s Name: Maryella Hope
The Duggars are keeping the memory of late grandma Mary Duggar alive in their hearts — and now, she’s being honored with a new baby name. On November 27, Josh Duggar and Anna Duggar (née Keller) welcomed their sixth child, a baby girl named Maryella Hope. After much fan speculation, Anna took to Instagram to reveal the very sweet and very special meaning behind the name they chose for their newborn daughter.
“So many of you have asked …so here’s the story behind the name Maryella Hope! 👶🏻,” Anna, 31, wrote in an Instagram caption on Saturday, November 30. “Soon after we found out baby [No. 6] was a girl, we began name discussing name ideas and we thought we had it narrowed down. 📜When Josh’s grandma passed away we considered the name Mary, but we were hesitant because Grandma (Mary Duggar) was such a special lady and we wanted our daughter’s name to be a reminder of how special Grandma was and carry on her legacy, but without feeling like we were trying to replace her. 👵🏼 Soon, our baby name list that we had narrowed down to 3 names had grown to a list of about dozen Mary-hyphenated names. As we continued chatting about names, Josh and I both fell in love with the name Maryella! ♥️.”
In June, the parents paid tribute to their late grandmother in the wake of her tragic passing. “Great-Grandma Duggar went to heaven today to be with Jesus!” Anna wrote, adding a crying emoji. “What an awesome woman of faith [she was] and such a loving example of God’s love. She was a true soul-winner and loved everyone she met, telling them to turn from sin and trust Jesus for salvation! [We’ll] miss her sooo much, and we cherish each moment we were blessed to spend together! Lots of tears being shed here — [we’re] grateful for all the prayers!”
Maryella’s parents also paid tribute to Mary with their June 2019 gender reveal. Reminiscing about the first gender reveal they held for their oldest daughter, they revealed to fans that the whole celebration had been Josh’s grandma’s idea. “This is the sixth gender reveal for our little family and it’s always so exciting!” Anna said. “This morning, Jessa [Duggar] sent over an article which mentioned our first gender reveal with Mackynzie on The Today Show as something that helped popularize gender reveal cakes 10 years ago.”
Telling the story, she continued, “When I was expecting Kynzie, Grandma Duggar excitedly told me of a ‘new trend’ that featured baking a gender reveal cake. Grandma asked if she and Amy could bake one for us? Josh and I loved the idea and that was our plan … until our producers heard about the idea, and it grew quite a bit! Buddy [Valastro] [from] Cake Boss ended up baking the first gender reveal cake for us! We were thrilled to cut into our pink cake with Meredith Vieira in NYC. All that to say, Grandma was the one who sparked this special tradition for our family, and it sounds like a lot of other families have enjoyed the idea over the years as well!”
The parents dedicated Maryella’s gender reveal to the relative. “With Grandma’s passing last week, this sixth gender reveal is a reminder of her love,” Anna shared. “I’m so glad we were able to share the news of our third little girl with Great-Grandma before she went to be with Jesus!”
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