What is in a Name?

I can still recall Jeff and I going through a million names before deciding on Isabel.  With Jeff being a teacher, sometimes it is tough to come up with a name with which he doesn’t already have a distinct personality associated.   We like names that are not too typical, yet not too over the top (no “Apples” in our future).  This time around has been no different.  I will randomly offer up a name and Jeff will ever so politely shoot it down.  Granted, we have not put too much into it as we still have a bit of time left.

Isabel on the other hand has ALL SORTS of names picked out for Kiddo Number Two.  (See that?  I am still working on an interim name to call her while we are thinking of her real name…sigh.)  The day Isabel started talking to me about names for her Lil’ Sis (Isabel’s name for her…maybe I should just go with that) has no doubt become one of my favorite memories of this process. We were driving in my car and she was in the back seat with her notepad and pen.  She usually writes words she has been working on in school, or asks me how to spell words she is thinking of.  This day was different; she started asking me about what Lil’ Sis will be named.  I told her that we would have to come up with a name for her and would keep her name given to her in China as her middle name.  Isabel tells me she has already come up with her name…wait for it…”Swimmer Girl.”   Now, she was quite serious about this so I somehow managed to keep a straight face so as not to offend her.  She seemed quite proud of the name she had come up with.   I said, “hmmmm, Swimmer Girl…that is a very creative name.”  I explained that maybe we should come up with a list of names and then we would have a bunch to choose from.  Since that day, she has kept a list of names on her notepad in my car.  So far we have Gardner, Isabella (she told me that it would be okay because adding the “la” on the end makes it a totally different name than hers), flower, Little Bear, Ballerina and Santa; as well as just about every name of the kids in her class including the boys.   

I love hearing the names she comes up with and will keep the sheet of paper for Lil’ Sis to look back on and know how much she was anxiously anticipated and loved long before she was ever brought home.  Come to think of it, I don’t think Jeff has ever had a student named Swimmer Girl…