Avalon Reija - where does the name come from?

I have gotten a lot of questions about where we got the name Avalon Reija, so I thought I would address them in a post.

Avalon - I first ran across this name playing a computer game in high school and I thought it would be a great name for a girl. (Side note: rarely do I think of anything this far in advance.) Avalon was the name of an area in this game. Actually the area was called The Mists of Avalon which, I believe, comes from this book. I've never actually read the book, but maybe now is a good time to do so.

According to wikipedia, the place Avalon first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 pseudohistorical account Historia Regum Britanniae as the place where King Arthur is taken to recover from his wounds after his last battle. More recently, there is actually a song called Avalon by Roxy Music, you can go here to listen to it and here for lyrics. There is also a band called Avalon, but they never sang a song with the same name.

Reija - after we decided on Avalon as the first name, we were interested in finding a Finnish middle name. Mainly, we just looked at websites for Finnish names and tried to find one we liked. As far as we know, there is no meaning behind the name Reija, but if anybody knows differently, please let us know. The most frequent question we get regarding this name is `how do you pronounce Reija?' Go here to find out. Basically, roll the `R,' pronounce the `j' as a `y', and (if you are really ambitious), pronounce both the `e' and the `i.'