Why did we name her Keifer?

I've been asked that many, many times - just why did we choose the name Keifer for our little angel?
Well....

here's the story.

Years ago, I read a book by one of my favorite authors, Jacquelyn Mitchard, called "A Theory of Relativity". Its about a custody battle involving a 3 year old girl named Keefer. Throughout the years, I've always kept Keefer in the back of my head for a name, and when CJ and I found out we were expecting (finally) I asked him about using the name Keefer. He agreed that he liked it, and I started to use some of those baby name sites, just to see what they said about the meaning of the name.

When I typed in Keefer, it said it was Celtic, and meant "noble, gentle". Hmm. I liked it.
When I typed in Kiefer (yes, like Kiefer Sutherland, whom many have asked us if we named her after), it said it was German, and meant "barrel-maker". Not really my style.
When I typed in Keifer, it said it was Gaelic, and meant "cherished". Well, after the struggle we went through just to conceive this precious angel, we decided it was meant to be that she was given a name that meant "Cherished". How appropriate. We also decided that the baby would be named Keifer whether it was a boy or a girl, as it was supposedly a boy's name, but these days, there are so many unisex names, we felt it didn't really matter.

Secretly, though, I thought it would be so cool to have a little girl named Keifer, as it is unique and beautiful.
Whenever we tell people her name, many people often do a double-take and repeat the name, and then tell us how much they like it (*whew*).

One night, last week, I was surfing the Internet, looking for new books to put on hold at the library, as I am a book fiend (as I've mentioned many times) and I can read books like water, if I have the time to sit and get through it. I was looking to see if Ms. Mitchard had written any new books, since her last one last summer, "Cage of Stars" (which is very good). She had a website listed, so I browsed that for a bit, and then I was suddenly inspired to "contact her" and tell her about how we named our girl Keifer, because I read her book.
Surprise to all surprises, she wrote me back! Here's what she said: "am truly, absolutely thrilled."
She also offered to send us a signed copy of the book "A Theory of Relativity" (which is appropriate and so meaningful to us now), as well as her children's books.

WOW! Just WOW! the author or one of the best books written, (or one of the top influential books), the Deep End of the Ocean, which was made into a movie AND was Oprah's book club's first book recommended, wrote me back! How awesome and what a truly remarkable woman!

We are very excited about this; that she took the time to write back and the offer she is giving us (for the books). This is a very cool story that I hope Keifer will enjoy when she is old enough to understand.