It isn’t a holiday game, so naming a baby was a really big deal. So big that we went in with a couple of ideas, but when we met her, we weren’t sure if any really fit her.
I said we needed a day to see who she was after she was born, but that day came and went and we still weren’t sure who this baby was.
For me, I was unprepared for how unlike me she would look, and I felt I was starting from scratch. I felt like she was a total stranger when I was expecting a long-lost relative. I had been stuck on the name Nia but I guess inadvertantly associated certain facial features with that name, and when Baby exhibited none, I was lost.
When the woman from the registry came to visit and gave us the paperwork for the birth certificate, we told her we didn’t have a name, expecting her to give us a hard time, but the first thing she said was, “That’s ok. You don’t have to decide before you leave. You have 10 days.”
So we went home without a name, much to the dismay of family members. It wasn’t a big deal to us- she was Baby, the baby we’d been talking to and wondering about for months. She was just… her. We didn’t need a name to get to know her.
But on the Thursday after she was born, we decided and on Friday had a naming ceremony. Josh’s mom Beth was with us and I wanted my mom to find out at the same time, so I called her and put her on speaker phone. Brother Colin and our friends Zeke (aka Uncle Pork), Matt, Colleen, and Rob came over, Zeke got his mom- Nana Peggy on the phone and Josh wrote a script, including everyone guessing what Baby would be when she grew up (I voted Plucky Girl Reporter- other votes included a Neurologist, a Teacher, and a transhuman- that one came from Josh), wishes for her and then finally the revealing of the name, which was followed by the Ceremonial Facebook Posting.
The whys behind the name:
Full name is Cordelia Maebh McGinley Crowe but we call her Cora.
Cordelia was on the list- it’s Welsh, it’s a name people know but isn’t used too often, and has great uses in entertainment- from Shakespeare to Joss Whedon (our favorite storyteller) to what Anne of Green Gables wished her name was- and Josh and I met doing a production of Anne of Green Gables. It also has the science background being a moon of Uranus.
The nickname is what sealed it for me though. On the drive home from the hospital I was looking at her, trying to think of names, and thought back to one of my favorite words- a word that I thought would be great for a character in a book or if I was really daring, a child- Cormorant. Don’t love the bird, but love the prosody of the word. That lead me to think that Coral is also a great word and tada, Cora was the flash of inspiration I’d been waiting for. Josh and I both love coral (the animal) and I love the color, and throw in Cormorant for me, AND the fact it goes with Cordelia and we were set.
The middle name was hard. I sort of threw in the towel because I didn’t want a middle name that ended in a with Cordelia and I had sort of given in to Isabella. I LOVE the name Isabella but it is overused, and with the popularity of Twilight I knew that all through school, she is going to have several Isabelle’s and Isabella’s in her class. It was like #3 on the most popular girls names this year.
I wanted something that honored my dad and our little Bella- but something that also honored our Irish and celtic ancestry. I stumbled on Maebh (pronounced Maeve) on an Irish name list and first thought it sounded great with Cordelia- and Cora Mae sounds good too- but the meaning is what sealed it for me. Maebh means “One who brings great joy.” This has been a tough year, and a year of many transitions for me. Losing my dad and my best friend (yes, she was 4-legged, but honestly my best friend) was really hard. Being pregnant for both loses meant my emotions were heightened but it also gave me something to look forward to. Without Baby, I’m not sure how I would’ve made it through that grief. I’m still not through it, but having her to look forward to definitely helped. Cora Maebh was definitely someone who brought joy when I was convinced there could be none.
I don’t care that McGinley isn’t a “name”, it’s still her 2nd middle name. It’s just there for show and because I’m not going to let go of it and I still think women taking men’s names is sexist and out of date, but a tradition to which I acquiesced. But not without putting McGinley in her name- at least legally.
She’ll be able to tell a good story about how her parents came up with her name- and how they drove everyone crazy with not deciding. And good stories are great things to have.
Introducing Cora!
