Names

I've always loved names. I joke that I had my kids' names picked before I even had a boyfriend! I love asking patients about the names they've chosen for their babies. I have 9 midwife logbooks full of details of every birth I've attended since my student days. Looking back at all the names is fun...some are very strange, some are funny, some packed with meaning and memory. The trends are interesting too. In the 90's the 2 most common names were Alyssa and Jason. The 2000's have brought a lot of C names, especially for boys. We have Camden, Colton, Caeden, and Caedmon. I've seen a resurgence in flower related names for girls such as Lilly, Rose and Daisy. My church is filled with little Biblically named boys...Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonas, Elijah, Samuel and Benjamin.

My own children are named Emily Suzanne an Jesse William. Funny thing is, despite the intense deliberation referred to above, I screwed up a little on each of their names! I thought I was naming Emily an unusual and old-fashioned name. In 2007 it was the most common female name in the USA. For Jesse, I had no idea there would be a huge crop of little girls his age named Jessica and called "Jessi", so he grew up complaining that I gave him a girl's name. Oh well, now that they are adults they seem to like the names OK.

Strangest name? Nero or Jason (born on Friday the 13th). Funniest name? I delivered a kid named Chevrolet after his dad's favorite car. Meaningful names? A beloved patient who was told her daughter would not live beyond a few days named the child "Mercy". Mercy is now a 9 year old girl.

We didn't name Emily for 24 hrs after she was born. We wanted to see which name fit her. It was "Leah" or "Emily". We saw Leah as slightly more mellow and pastel, Emily as fiesty. We chose the fiesty one. "Emily" means diligent. Here's a poem I wrote for Emmy on her graduation from college.

Fiercely Kind

Two names, one pastel, one fiesty
After a day we knew what fit.

Poet Nami speaks of truly knowing kindness.
I've known her from that moment of sweet, exhausted agony
when I held her in my arms.

Was it the club-footed baby playmate
or the village kindness poured on you by adoring African grandmothers?

Playground champion of oddball, freckle-faced redheads
Somehow you knew kindness from the start.

And not the pastel kind...

Waco High
Late night talks of chickens and eagles
bigotry, injustice and hurting friends.
Standing up to lazy science teachers and fervidly patriotic band leaders with the wrong God on the flagpole.
I was always glad you were an eagle.

Taking Chicago by storm.
Not for you the glittering department stores
or counting millionaires money in sky-scraper cubicles.
No, pregnant homeless teens would do your formation.

Emily, the fiesty choice.
Diligently kind
Social worker from day one.
I am fiercely proud of my fiercely kind girl.







By the way, to all the Leahs out there, I still love the name. Maybe I'll get a Leah as a grandchild someday.