For a girl - Evangeline. She’ll be so tired of being associated with the old Longfellow poem that the story about the van will be a welcome relief!
for a boy - Evan. Simple and to the point!
Dream big, I say, dream big! We’re talking about a new person coming to inhabit our imperiled planet. Names can have unintended consequences, and to name a child after where she was possibly conceived…? This clearly lacks imagination. It’s much better to name a child an ordinary name like Barak. I mean, look how far Barak Obama got with his ordinary, run-of-the-mill name! Forget anything “van.” Dream big, then explain it to him/her when he/she gets older of the effort to be ordinary so as to relieve any potential burden in his/her growing up years of being poked at by other kids for having a name that resembles a car. Much better to have that for an explanation than explaining how Vani, Vandalia or Vanessa came to be.
Hi Tara and Curtis…I wanted to share that my daughter’s name is Bonnie, named after the Triumph Bonneville motorcycle since her birth kept me from going to Bike Week at Daytona Beach where I bond with vintage Triumph owners. She, as a 15 year old, has a lot of fun telling the story of her name…she is very proud of it actually…in a teenager shy sort of way…I strongly vote for Van somehow somewhere…very best of luck to you both. Nowell
I suggest instead of concentrating on conception on the trip concentrate on love.
Make sure you keep the van. Restored Vanagons and are worth big money. I know this because I’ve been looking for 1. My wife and I had 1 early in our 32 year marriage and It would be nice to have it back. How about celebrating the German heritage of the Vanagon? We called our son Hank but considered Gunther (nickname Boomer) but he wishes we would have gone with Wolfgang.
Rocky
– as in, “if the van’s a-rockin’ don’t bother knockin’”
girl or boy, middle name or first name
Vaniah (Vanyah) = “Yahweh is praise” h2057
Ezra 10:36 “Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,”
- one of the sons of Bani, in the time of Ezra, who took a foreign wife
I work with a woman whose name is simply Vee. That’s a possibility. For a boy, I don’t think you can go wrong with Vance. Because he might have been conceived in the “van” by "chance."
Good luck you crazy kids.
Get an early start building the kid’s character by burdening him/her with the 'pun’ishing appellation: Taragin Vanegar …
My parents had a VW when I was a kid, and I just sold my 1978 Westfalia a couple years ago…
If it’s a boy, perhaps Vincent William for the first and middle… V.W. …get it? The girl’s version may be more difficult, but Vanessa is a good start…
How about naming the child after Ben Pon, the person responsible for the VW van.
What about Kara? It could be short for “Kara-van” but they could keep it an inside family joke!
If it were a boy, it would be better to find a different name. 
“Van” is a traditional Vietnamese name! They could take a quick trip to Vietnam for an alternate name origin story if Tara is really worried about explaining the name!
Curtis is an English name and Tara is Gaelic I think. So Devan seems a good boys name and Vanessa seems a good girls name. Both are easy to justify on their own.
Westley would bee good spin on Westfalia. Call him Wes.
Thanks for the fun idea and creative lifestyle.
Cheers!
For a girl, well - to me - the answer is obvious - Vanessa! Such a beautiful, classy name - as in “Vanessa Redgrave”. Don’t know if it was part of your itinerary, but what about Victoria? Alberta?
For a boy (a little more challenging) - What about using part of “Westphalia”- as in Wesley? Wess, (If you’re a fan of his art) Van Gogh (add last name, if it fits) - they’ll still call him Van, probably - Vance - If you’re a fan (again) - What about “Van Morrison” (fill in the last name, if it fits) - What about “Philip Van. . .” (as in “Fill up the Van - which I’m sure you’ve had to do many times!” In any case, best of luck. I know you’ll find the perfect name - What about “Trip”? or “Chance”? (after all, you really took a chance with that trip!) Finally, Vancouver(for the province in Canada) - (but they’d still call him Van, I’m afraid! LOL)
This is fabulous. It will be so meaningful your child, maybe not when they are a teen( nothing is at that age) but when they are older it will. W. Falia is a cool name for a girl. for a boy Vanagon is great. So playful and fun. GO for it. it will be great. very cool…
I think subtlety is the rule when naming. My vote goes for Vincent as a middle name.
Baby Boy: Volks Wagner
Baby Girl: Vanessa Wagner
I grew up in Grand Rapids, with hundreds of thousands of Hollanders. They were all Vans. VanderMolen, VanderZee, to infinity. My English teacher’s wife was named Van, that was her first name. Van Johnson was a movie star when I was growing up. Van’s Pharmacy was on the corner two blocks away. I say give the kid Van or Vanander as a middle name. If I can live with “Cullis” as a middle name through adolescence, your son can come up with a creative reason to have a middle name of “Van.”
Evangeline and Envander