What's in a Name?

Lucy:

When we first told Stella there was a baby in my belly I don’t remember her initial reaction, and I think it’s because it took weeks and months for her to really start to communicate her understanding of the situation (trust me, I still have a hard time understanding such a miracle myself). Normal conversations would be about baby sister or brother and what would you name it. For a while there Stella wanted to call the baby Pink, I relate this name choice to more of the fact that she wanted a baby sister.

Then one day, she just started calling the baby in my belly, baby Lulu. We don’t know where it came from, but it stuck. So much so the teachers at her daycare would ask about baby Lulu.

In the mean time, Michael and I were still debating names… and one day it hit us, let’s check out the Lu sections of the baby name books, Stella might be on to something. For a girl the cute, classic, and familiar name of Lucy caught our attention. (I’m not one for shortening names, so it’s just Lucy, not Lucille). Plus, we had the opposite problem with the name Lucy that most people do, everyone we knew named Lucy we loved/love! So we didn’t have to turn or noses up at the idea.

The boy name we went back and forth with, remember we didn’t find out the gender with this one.    At first it was Lewis (Lu sound at least). Then Michael came in one day from work and announced “I don’t like Lewis, I just don’t want to do it”. So I asked what he had in mind and he said “Luke”, which still stuck with the Lu theme. I was on board.

Basically Stella named her baby sibling and we were still able to call it baby Lulu the whole time. It was a sweet gesture I felt both of them would really appreciate in later years.

Ramona:

Stella’s middle name is Marie, after Michael’s grandma. A woman who was very dear and near to his heart, not to mention Stella Marie just flows so well. So we went with it.

The idea of a new baby brought on some fun thoughts for names, and I always felt the middle name is a perfect space to pay tribute to a family member or friend.

My grandmother’s name is Ramona. She was a strong, independent woman who also had a lot of baggage and undo rest to her nature. I contemplated naming this one Ramona as a first name. I would get lots of praises from people when I would mention it, however I would get nervous about the self-fulfilling prophecy or expectation that might come with it as a first name namesake, and honestly I couldn’t make myself ever comfortable with it as a first name. So I put it on my middle name list. I hope my grandmother appreciates the decision we made, I can hear her say either way, but in my heart she was a wonderful lady and I can’t think of a better way to show my love for her.