What's In a Name?
There once was this article about my family in the Lebanon Daily News, our little hometown paper. The reporter listed through the six of us sibs, my brothers' honor society, altar service, sports achievements, student council, etc. When he got to me, he said, "Even though she's only in the third grade, she is showing academic prowess." When he got to my little sister, he ended the article with this power-punch question, "Right now she's just a kindergartener at St. Mary's School, but the question is, will Michelle Legaspi be able to continue to carry the Legaspi Family Dynasty?" Yes, that's a lot of pressure, I know. (Pressure that she thrives on with aplomb, fyi.) But THIS is exactly the pressure I feel in naming what I think will be the last of our children. It's gotta be great and it's got to carry the weight of a dynasty.
This is one of our daily exercises, trying out names on each other. Geoff will appear in the doorway to the laundry room, "How about 'Clementine Hope?" And I'll kick back, "Joyce Generosa?" Or later, over the popcorn during a movie, "Did we consider 'Mildred Skye?" I will say, the payoff is so good when we stumble on a good one. To me, it's sort of like a juicy thrift-find like a vintage cotton frock that has duckies wearing Debbie Reynolds' raincoat and umbrella circa 1952. Or the Fisher Price Camper set complete with all the little chokable people plus the little plastic campfire. Finding a great name is better than this.
I find myself limited by English. I want to find a name by starting with its meaning. I want a Japanese name that means "the branch that blossoms by faintest moonlight." Or how do you say in Hausa something that means "the people who get scattered but who are reunited gloriously and serendipitously?" With our sons, we say we named them after the station we found ourselves in life at that moment: God is with us every day and True forgiveness is possible. With Clara we named her after cute clipped variations of our mothers' names. With this one, it seems like we're naming her after the desire to close the baby-having chapter of our life. Something that packs a wollop, a cute, meaningful, musical wollop.
I was remembering this book that I read to my neices when they were little Catholic homeschoolers. It was about the girl martyrs and it was illustrated in the style of Maira Kalman, very whimsical and painterly. I say that bc somehow it captured the beauty of St. Agnes offering God her gouged eyeballs or the strength and courage of St. Agatha who offered her breasts to God on a platter. I was considering the names of the girl martyrs, full of integrity and this Godward energy that compelled them so deeply. And I do think about the youngest, how it seems whatever they do, however mighty there is something beautiful and humorous about them being the baby of the family. And even though I am very skeptical of "self-esteem" psychobabble I do think that girls have an uphill battle in our culture. I like the chutspah of a girl like St. Maria Goretti who took 70 daggers before she would submit to an Italian grape farmer.
And there is the whole topic of accents to consider. For example, my sister and I both love the main character in "A Separate Peace" but with our parents' Filipino accent, the name "Phineas" would be a perpetual fountain of phallic jokes. And I love that my parents named me after Mother Mary but I think that my name sounds terrible in Boston--"Mu-reer." Or even by the Philly sisters of St. Joseph--"Mu-ray-uh."
As for leaking the possibilities of THIS baby's name. I will say that this time around it was a GB pick. The first name is great. The middle name is giving me pause. I have some trusted namesmiths on the case. And I have good techniques for dodging the question in case you ever need them. If you know me, this is serious almost sacred business to me. I have been accused of "taking things too seriously" but to those critics, I say "if YOU have to push a child through a 10cm canal, you get to name that baby however you want to."
This is one of our daily exercises, trying out names on each other. Geoff will appear in the doorway to the laundry room, "How about 'Clementine Hope?" And I'll kick back, "Joyce Generosa?" Or later, over the popcorn during a movie, "Did we consider 'Mildred Skye?" I will say, the payoff is so good when we stumble on a good one. To me, it's sort of like a juicy thrift-find like a vintage cotton frock that has duckies wearing Debbie Reynolds' raincoat and umbrella circa 1952. Or the Fisher Price Camper set complete with all the little chokable people plus the little plastic campfire. Finding a great name is better than this.
I find myself limited by English. I want to find a name by starting with its meaning. I want a Japanese name that means "the branch that blossoms by faintest moonlight." Or how do you say in Hausa something that means "the people who get scattered but who are reunited gloriously and serendipitously?" With our sons, we say we named them after the station we found ourselves in life at that moment: God is with us every day and True forgiveness is possible. With Clara we named her after cute clipped variations of our mothers' names. With this one, it seems like we're naming her after the desire to close the baby-having chapter of our life. Something that packs a wollop, a cute, meaningful, musical wollop.
I was remembering this book that I read to my neices when they were little Catholic homeschoolers. It was about the girl martyrs and it was illustrated in the style of Maira Kalman, very whimsical and painterly. I say that bc somehow it captured the beauty of St. Agnes offering God her gouged eyeballs or the strength and courage of St. Agatha who offered her breasts to God on a platter. I was considering the names of the girl martyrs, full of integrity and this Godward energy that compelled them so deeply. And I do think about the youngest, how it seems whatever they do, however mighty there is something beautiful and humorous about them being the baby of the family. And even though I am very skeptical of "self-esteem" psychobabble I do think that girls have an uphill battle in our culture. I like the chutspah of a girl like St. Maria Goretti who took 70 daggers before she would submit to an Italian grape farmer.
And there is the whole topic of accents to consider. For example, my sister and I both love the main character in "A Separate Peace" but with our parents' Filipino accent, the name "Phineas" would be a perpetual fountain of phallic jokes. And I love that my parents named me after Mother Mary but I think that my name sounds terrible in Boston--"Mu-reer." Or even by the Philly sisters of St. Joseph--"Mu-ray-uh."
As for leaking the possibilities of THIS baby's name. I will say that this time around it was a GB pick. The first name is great. The middle name is giving me pause. I have some trusted namesmiths on the case. And I have good techniques for dodging the question in case you ever need them. If you know me, this is serious almost sacred business to me. I have been accused of "taking things too seriously" but to those critics, I say "if YOU have to push a child through a 10cm canal, you get to name that baby however you want to."
posted by Maria at
10:07 PM
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