Thursday, October 18, 2012

What's the meaning of a baby's name?

Baby names are extremely personal. Many parents-to-be choose to keep names private or at least semi-secret to prevent back lash on a name. Really, who can "hate" a name once it is attached to a baby?

For us, our daughter's name was found on the side of a boat in Finland (3/4 of my heritage) and since it also has a meaning in Sanskrit, it fit for us, as my husband is Indian. We liked how it sounded, it had great meaning and was pronounceable and relevant for both of our families. When you're blending cultures, it is hard to find names that have meaning and won't prevent a child from defining themselves in a culture or, on the other hand, give them a name that may not fit exactly who they are.

For our son's name, we at first were looking at names that started with a particular letter, but nothing stuck. My husband's lovely idea was "Indus Trias (last name)" Um... yeah say that quickly and see why his half-a-bottle of wine idea was quickly nixed! We ended up a name that has meaning again in Hindi/Sanskrit, is heard of and pronounceable in the west and actually has a variation that is Irish - which happens to be the source of my last name and a tiny bit of my blood!

Well, I saw the name Uma Thurman and her boyfriend apparently decided on their baby, and even though baby is here, I have to say WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? Apparently someone's indecisive. I mean, I have some names that I really wanted for babies that my husband said absolutely NOT to... but I didn't just add them to make more middle names!

Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson



  • Rosalind: (f) Old German meaning Gentle horse
  • Arusha: (m) Sanskrit meaning calm, bright sun.
  • Arkadina: unknown - but is a character in Chekhov's "The Seagull"
  • Altalune: perhaps means high moon (luckily she didn't separate this and make it something like "Alta-Luna")
  • Florence (f) Latin meaning "I flower" or "to blossom"
  • Thurman-Busson (again, indecisive, but at least she won't be the only one kiddo out there with a hyphenated last name)

So while I do love creativity, sometimes, we need to make a decision on a child's name, right? I do wish people would leave kid's names alone and just let them be, but 7 names in one? That's a bit much in my book. But, I guess, live and let live... there are bigger fish to fry :)

3 comments:

Brittney Minor said...

7 names is quite a bit! We kept our names secret, but they are pretty common names. No cool heritage here! :)

Wendy said...

I don't think it's so bad. In many cultures, a string of names is common...and she'll never really use them. In the US, you can have 25 names but you only ever really have to use the first and last. If they have meaning to the parents, I say go for it! It gives her many options for nicknames later!

Rachel R. said...

That is a LOT of name. And yet...each individual name sounds more-or-less like a NAME. Unlike other celebrity children who are stuck with such names as "Blue" or "Pilot Inspector."