I like naming things. From my cats Velvet (I was 9 and she was soft!), Sammer (she seemed like a Sam) and Willow (I was a burgeoning lesbian with a certain vampire-slayer sidekick on the mind) to my cars Jean-Luc (was white and bald), Rorge (sounded like a Jetson car), Jango (looked like a blue Mandalorian helmet) and Jedi (a Jetta!), finding the proper name for something has always been very important to me. Indeed, as a palaeontologist, I spent far more time looking into etymology than I did researching the functional morphology upon which my thesis was based.
Naming a child is (arguably) a much larger responsibility than naming a new species of 400 million year old brachiopod. I like unique names (growing up with the same name as the number of people who could populate a small planet likely has affected that somewhat). Kay likes traditional family names. As you can imagine, it has been quite the negotiation!
My first offering was Darwin (did I mention that I was a palaeontologist in a former life?). Despite my persistence, that has gone no further than the moniker for our embryos and has now been portmanteau-ed with Stormageddon to produce StormyD for our beautiful little foetus. The great thing about starting with Darwin is that most other names seemed exceedingly reasonable!
My first offering was Darwin (did I mention that I was a palaeontologist in a former life?). Despite my persistence, that has gone no further than the moniker for our embryos and has now been portmanteau-ed with Stormageddon to produce StormyD for our beautiful little foetus. The great thing about starting with Darwin is that most other names seemed exceedingly reasonable!
After much discussion, here are our name options:
Girl: Mairéad Shirley
Both of our moms have passed away so it was actually a very easy decision to honour them. Plus, it is a win-win on the unique and traditional family name requirements!
Boy: Carrick (middle name as yet uncertain)
My mom grew up on a farm named Carrigdangan in West Cork, Ireland (pictured above). Carraig is gaelic for rock and I believe dangnan refers to strong or hard, as the soil was the kind of stuff that only an Corkman could farm. It is a magical place in my mind, steeped in family legends and origin stories. We hope to find a middle name that will honour Kay's side of the family as well.
As for the last name, Kay suggested that we use my last name as our child will already look like her. It is very practical in terms of travelling and meeting the teacher, for example, but more than that, it means that I am always included. In a situation with the potential for society to deem me as not a blood relative or only the social mom, this inclusion means the world to me.
Any suggestions for boy middle names to go with Carrick out there?
Girl: Mairéad Shirley
Both of our moms have passed away so it was actually a very easy decision to honour them. Plus, it is a win-win on the unique and traditional family name requirements!
Boy: Carrick (middle name as yet uncertain)
My mom grew up on a farm named Carrigdangan in West Cork, Ireland (pictured above). Carraig is gaelic for rock and I believe dangnan refers to strong or hard, as the soil was the kind of stuff that only an Corkman could farm. It is a magical place in my mind, steeped in family legends and origin stories. We hope to find a middle name that will honour Kay's side of the family as well.
As for the last name, Kay suggested that we use my last name as our child will already look like her. It is very practical in terms of travelling and meeting the teacher, for example, but more than that, it means that I am always included. In a situation with the potential for society to deem me as not a blood relative or only the social mom, this inclusion means the world to me.
Any suggestions for boy middle names to go with Carrick out there?
Feeling nostalgic so here is a family favourite Irish tune:
In my memory I will always see
the town that I have loved so well
Where our school played ball by the gasyard wall
and we laughed through the smoke and the smell
Going home in the rain, running up the dark lane
past the jail and down behind the fountain
Those were happy days in so many, many ways
in the town I loved so well...
The Town I Loved so Well by Phil Coulter (sung here by Paddy Reilly)
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