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Xaviera Greene-Davis, 49, named her children Nevada, Montana, Indiana, Arizona, Missouri, and Dakota in a thoughtful, though unique, way to set their futures right as they found themselves in a neighborhood where too many futures already seemed written.
Greene-Davis is a native of Newport News, Virginia, and she raised six children amid the same struggles that defined her own life. She wanted her sons and daughters to see themselves as bigger than their circumstances.
So, she gave them names that would not be easily forgotten.
She didn’t come up with the names because she had traveled to the areas where the names were selected. But in those states, she saw possibilities and lives that extended beyond the neighborhoods where her family resided.
During times when Greene-Davis was in and out of jail, she also wanted the names to serve as a bond between the siblings, something that would keep them together no matter what they were going through. She hoped that their names would become a common identity.
“It worked,” her daughter Montana Jones, 26, told Today.com. “We’ve been close our whole lives. It’s always been the six of us.”
“She wanted us to not be like anybody else we were around,” Montana said.
Additionally, Greene-Davis wanted the names to serve as a reminder to her kids that they could create a different future for themselves.
Growing up, Montana’s name naturally drew notice, frequently prompting jokes and comparisons to the Disney character Hannah Montana. However, the teasing never lessened her appreciation for the unique name her mother chose.
“I plan on doing something similar,” Montana said. “If not states, maybe cities.”
According to Montana, Greene-Davis eventually left Virginia, married, and relocated her family to North Carolina, where she completely turned her life around.
Greene-Davis admitted that “it was a great decision.”
Now, she looks at the paths her children have forged as the true measure of that choice. Every one of her children earned their high school diplomas, going on to chase their own ambitions through further study or professional success.
Today, her daughter, Montana, serves as a deputy sheriff, and Nevada, 27, has built a career with a restoration firm. Indiana, 23, found her calling as a veterinary technician, while 21-year-old Arizona works as a 911 dispatcher. Missouri, 20, is dedicated to her role at a daycare, and Dakota, the youngest at 18, is currently playing football for Virginia State University.
Montana reflected that their special names are a lasting reminder of Greene-Davis’s strong faith in her children’s abilities.
“She always felt in her heart that her six states were going to be something,” Montana recalled. “Everybody is going to remember our names.”
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