What's in a name?

[Eibhleann's Mommy]

I always thought about what I would name my kids long before I ever had one. People accuse me of thinking too hard about things and making them more difficult than they need to be. But, that’s part of what makes me, well…me. I have a fairly common name, but it’s spelled differently. My mom always told me it was an Irish spelling of the name and we’re Irish so that’s why she chose it. When I was growing up I kind of found it annoying that I had a blah name, but it caused me so much trouble with teachers and other people. If someone knew how to say my name, they could never spell it correctly (even if I spelled it out loud for them, they’d still get it wrong most of the time, which I always thought was really rude…proves they weren’t actually listening to me and thought they knew best how to spell it). If someone saw my name spelled out, they would inevitably pronounce it incorrectly. It’s REALLY not that hard. My name is Cati. It’s pronounced like Katie, but it starts with a C and does not contain an E.

Anyway, I think because I grew up having name issues I have always thought it would be a good idea to have a darn good reason for choosing a name. I’m actually named after my godmother, but she spelled her name with a K. That’s cool. I like the tradition of naming children after family members and close friends. There’s nothing wrong with that.

A couple years ago a friend of mine was getting ready to have a son. She and her husband were contemplating names for him and wanted him to have a strong name. They had thought about naming him after his dad, but his name is Corey and he reasoned that there had never been a “President Corey” and they wanted him to do great things so they chose a different name. I understand that, I guess.

I think about names a lot and why people choose the names they do. I also look at certain names and see how many people with that name have done great things. For example, an easy one is the name George. There have been a lot of Georges throughout history who’ve done amazing things: George Washington, George Bush and Jr. (well, maybe not so amazing, but they did both become president!), George Boole (mathematician who developed Boolean algebra), George Washington Carver, George Custer (of “Custer’s last stand”), George Gershwin (composer), Van Morrison (born George Van Morrison, and a great musician), George Orwell, George Patton (General Patton), George C. Scott (played Patton in the movie), George Bernard Shaw, Orson Welles (born George Orson Welles), George Westinghouse…well, you get the point. There are a ton of famous Georges out there.

I feel like a person’s name is a defining factor in who they are as a person. I may be wrong, and there are always exceptions. I wonder, too, if it’s like the chicken and the egg thing…do there just happen to be a ton of motivated people out there with the name George, or did giving them that name give them a leg up? I’m weird, I know. But this is the kind of stuff I think to death.

When it came time to start thinking of names for my own little one, I had a really hard time. I knew I was having a girl, so that made it a little easier. I wanted to wait until she was born and meet her first, get an idea of her personality and choose a name that fit her instead of picking a name first and hoping it was a good match. But, you can’t leave the hospital without having named your child, so I had to come up with something sooner than I wanted to. I knew I wanted her to have a beautiful name that means something. I also wanted to give her a Gaelic name because her father and I are both Irish (her father is Scottish, too). I didn’t want it to be too common, like Shannon, but I didn’t want it to be off the wall, either. I also didn’t want to just make something up. Unfortunately, when it comes to Gaelic names, even if they sound good, they’re not spelled well!

My daughter’s name is Eibhleann. It’s pronounced Eve-Lynn. The “bh” in Gaelic is pronounced like a “v”. I think it’s the perfect name for my little girl. It means beautiful and radiant. She is definitely both of those things. I’ve gotten a lot of flack for the spelling of it, of course. But it’s Gaelic and that’s what we wanted. Sure, I could have spelled it differently, more phonetically, but then it wouldn’t be Gaelic. My dad won’t even use her name. He calls her Widget. My mom calls her Evie. I call her Eibhleann.

I’m sure Eibhleann will have a tough time in school because we chose this name for her, but I will leave it up to her if she wants to go by a nickname like Evie, Eve or Lynn. Whatever happens, I hope my child isn’t traumatized by her name. I think it fits her very well and hopefully she will grow to appreciate it. I’m certainly nobody famous, but I have grown to like my name and I think my name does describe me, in a sense…I’m fairly normal, like the name Katie, but I’m a little quirky just like the spelling of my name.

I would love to know other peoples’ reasons for choosing the names they did for their children. I find it very interesting.

[Eibhleann's Mommy]

Those are both great stories! Thanks for sharing them with me.

[Anci]

wow...savvy mom...that is a great story!!!

[Ms Savvy Mom]

I love your story and to tend to over think things I care about. When we got pregnant we were sure it was going to be a girl. I had the name Eden McKenna picked out for years. Well the ultrasound proved us wrong. The nursery plans and baby name we had picked went out the window. My husband and I are very non traditional but we wanted our new son to have a name with roots and meaning. On our way home from the ultrasound the name "Zeus" just popped into my head. My husband loved it immediately but even more so after I explained to him how I came up with it. It turns out we come from a long line of Jesus' both our grandfathers, great grandfathers and even great great grandfathers were named Jesus. My husband's great great grandfather Jesus Arvizo is in history books as one of the first translators between the Navajo and Apache indians and was nicknamed "Soos" by the Navajo. We couldn't go with Jesus because it just didn't sound right with my husband's Scottish last name so we settled on Zeus. We figured people will joke about it and say "Hey Zeus" which they do and I think its cool and pretty funny . In addition my dad who passed away when I was little loved Johnny Cash who had a song called "A boy named Sue" its such a touching song I remember listening to Johnny Cash a lot with my dad as a kid when I was about 6 or 7 and later after he passed everytime I'd hear that song I'd think of him. Zeus spelled backwords has the name Sue in it so I felt it added that much more significance to the name. I don't know much about my father's side of the family since he died when I was young. Recently I found out (from my aunt-dad's sister, that I hadn't seen in 25 years) that My great grandfather was Sicilian. I also found out that the southwest part of Sicily holds some remains of monuments to Zeus. The family was a little hesitant to accept us naming our son after a Greek god but once I explained the Jesus and Soos and Sue meaning eventually they warmed up to the name and realized how fitting it was for our long awaited buddle of joy(13 years to be exact). So Zeus it was, the god of gods and the god of the sky and thunder. We had 3 baby showers thrown for us from friends and family in southern, central and northern California. At all 3 we had rain, lightening, thunder and even hale at one of them. The gods definately had something to do with it:)

[Anci]

I love your daughter's name! My daughter's mane is Rebecca, and it was my husband who chose it. We weren't even married when he did, lol, but we were talking about having kids and he told me he's always loved the name Rebecca and if we had a girl he wanted us to name her like that.I agreed;the story behind it, it's a nice one ( at least I think so) He said he first heard the name one Sunday in church( when he was a kid). The pastor was preaching and he says he doesn't remember what it was about, but the name Rebecca got stuck in his mind; he can hear the echo of the preacher's voice saying Rebecca even today.
Now my name is another story... While living in Europe I didn't have any problems with it, but since I moved here, I've heard it all...hahah .My name is Anca , like Paul Anka's , only spelled with a c instead of a k. well..I've heard Ansa, Anika ( where's an i in my name????) Enka....The weird part is that if I spell it Anka, everyone knows how to say it...But unfortunately my name isn't spelled with a k...and to change it, it means to change every official papers I have...my passport, my greencard, etc...and I am not willing to do that ( nor to pay for it)