Thomas Rhett and wife Lauren have had a busy summer, to put it mildly. Their family has doubled in size in three months. The couple adopted daughter Willa Gray, 21 months, from Uganda in May, and Lauren gave birth to daughter Ada James on Aug. 12.
On top of that, TR will release his appropriately titled third studio album, Life Changes, on Sept. 8. While TR did a lot of writing for the new album—10 of the 14 songs—the most important writing he did this summer was penning the names of his two daughters.
TR recently stopped by morning show Ty, Kelly & Chuck to talk about the inspiration behind the two names.
Ada James:
“My uncle’s name is James Elias, my stepdad’s name is Timothy James, my brother’s name is Tyler James and Lauren’s grandad is named James,” said TR. “My wife kept hearing the name Ada in her dreams, which is pretty nuts. And she woke up one day and said, ‘I think Ada is the name.’”
Willa Gray:
“Willa is short for Willard, which is my grandfather’s name,” says TR. “Willard means resolutely strong and brave. Gray is short for Lauren’s brother, Grayson. So we’re really trying to stick to a bunch of family names, especially going forward having more babies at some point.”
Watch TR explain the inspiration behind the names in the video below.
