As most of you know who are regular readers of this blog, or just participants in my life, we just found out we're having a girl. I can honestly say, now that a few weeks have passed and I've gotten over the shock, that I am very excited! Our family is going to have a different start than I ever imagined, and that's kind of a fun discovery. But, I feel very confused and befuddled. When I thought we were having a boy, I knew very definitely the name of our child, and why he needed that name, and I even felt a confirmation that he liked the name! I know, I'm different. Well, so now I am having a girl. What does all that other stuff mean, and does it still apply if our next child is a boy, and really, is it important?!? And most important of all, I can't come up with a name for our baby. We had a name picked, but now that we're really having a girl, I don't like this name. In fact, there's not one name that I can honestly say I like, because I don't feel as strong as I did about our boys name. What kind of a name do you give to your first child that's a girl? Does she need a strong name so she can be a leader in your family and in life, or does she get the sweet, girly name that will help her develop into the beautiful woman she will someday be? Can you see my quandary? Please, if you have insight, share it with me. I would appreciate it, and so would Reed, who gets frustrated with my "new name every night" game.
Okay, now I just shared this post with Reed, and he didn't seem to understand where I was coming from. He thought the point of my post was that the name you are given will shape you into who you are. That is NOT my point. Here is an example of what I'm trying to express. My mother, when my sister and I were born, felt impressed to give me her name as my middle name because she felt that I would be a lot like her. And, sometimes whether I liked it or not, I felt tied to my mother in a special way because of this whether I was truly like her or not. It can be the same way when you name your child after an ancestor. Most people will remember, for the rest of their days, who they were named after and why, and probably take the time to find out about that person and try to emulate them in some way in their life. This is where names can be important.
Even if you're not named after someone, you never know when someone may name their child AFTER YOU, because you were an important enough person in their life. Like my twin sister whose middle name is the name of one of my mothers good friends. I never even knew this friend, but it was obviously someone important enough to my mother to carry on this woman in some way with one of her children. Names are interesting stuff, huh? Or maybe it's just interesting to a hormonal and anxious soon-to-be mother wanting to ensure a good name for her child.
