Thursday 13- Names

My four children have 13 names between them, 4 first (obviously), 7 middle and 2 last names. Today I will share with you how those names came about. And my regrets. Oh, I have regrets!

1. TAYLOR. This is my mother's maiden name. My grandparents had no sons and I thought this was a nice way to honour them and allow their name to carry on through one more generation. When I was 8 months pregnant they released the top names of 1994 and wouldn't you know it- Taylor was in the top 10. This stressed me out as I was not a fan of popular names. It was too late to change it though, my nan and granddad were thrilled. Plus I was still sure she was a boy and would be called Liam. Other choices for a girl were Aidan and Carson. I still love Aidan, but I am glad I didn't use Carson.

2. ELIZABETH. I gave her father the choice between Emily and Elizabeth (after Laura Ingalls Wilder's middle name) and he chose this one because it was his grandmother's name. I foolishly did not make the Elizabeth Taylor connection until after her birth. Oddly, enough I found a year later that my father's grandmother was called Elizabeth Taylor. I was unaware that there were Taylors on both side of my family tree.

3. JUDE. My paternal grandmother, a very devout Catholic, was ecstatic that I had named my daughter after St. Jude. I let her think that, but it was really the middle name of River Phoenix, my teenage crush. Sorry Granny.

4. LIAM. I picked this out when I was 14 and just going through my obsession with all things Irish. It too had a huge burst in popularity in the mid 1990s but I knew I would not change it. I still shake my fist at Liam Neeson and that damn Vanity Fair cover that said "The Liam King." Liam means 'strong protector' and as the only boy with 3 sisters it is definitely a name that suits my Liam.

5. SEAMUS. My brother's middle name is James and this is the Irish version.

6. FORREST. Chosen by Liam's dad as this was a family name. If I had my way it would have been Padraig.

7. W....F...D. Oh, how I hate this last name. My ex and I almost split up before the wedding because I was so resistant to taking it on as my own. Part of my issue is that he was never adopted by his stepfather, although he took on his last name. I much preferred his birth name of Kerr.

8. SAOIRSE. William disliked it, calling it a Fenian name. The only way I got to use it was if I agreed not to have her baptised as a Catholic. I agreed, had an awful labour and emergency section, and he said "You can have her baptised if you want!" It's almost like I planned it. Saoirse means "freedom" and even though it esentially an Irish Republican name, I do think it suits her birthdate of November 11th very well. My most asked question is of the pronunciation and for those of you who are not in the know we pronounce it as "Soar-sha" (which is how my Irish speaking father says it), not the more common "Seer-sha". I've also heard it as "Sayr-sha." Those Irish, they are a confusing bunch.

9. MAEVE. Another Irish name, meaning "the cause of great joy" or "she who intoxicates." I love that! It is so Saoirse. She is the only one of my children with one middle name, I just thought Saoirse Maeve was a very powerful name and didn't want to take away from it by adding to it, if that makes any sense at all.

10. SOPHIE. My poor Sophie. I wanted to call her something Irish- Niamh, Aisling, Caoimhe were my top 3. All shot down by William. He said he would agree to Siobhan, I said no as it is quite common here. My mother and Taylor pushed for Sophie, a name they had both pushed for with Saoirse. For most of my last months of pregnancy she was going to be Sophie Niamh Lily, but that all fell apart 2 days before her birth. After she was born William was holding her and he said "How about Sarah?" Now I think Sarah is a beautiful name, but I just couldn't use it. And my grandfather refuses to call my children by their Irish names so to him Liam is Billy and Saoirse is Sarah. So I said let's just call her Sophie. Biggest regret? Using another S name. I confuse those 2 girls all the time and have been known to say "Soarsh-ophie". Second biggest regret? Not insisting on Aisling, which means "a vision, a dream." Though Sophie does mean wisdom, and the girl is super smart.

11. VICTORIA. Chosen by William. He wanted to use either Samantha, after his step daughter, or Victoria, after his niece. I'm not a fan of Samantha so I agreed to Victoria. What happened to Niamh??? I don't know! I was on a lot of drugs!

12. LILIAN. LILY. I've just drawn a blank on if we spell her name with one l or 2. Crap. How shitty a mother am I? Um...really shitty since it is actually Lily! And I know that, I do, I swear, I am just really tired. Or something. I may as well as take this moment to admit I often forget her time of birth. Was it 11.19 or 11.29? 11.29. Thank God for that pregnancy blog! So...her name was going to be Sophie Niamh Lilian, and ended up as Sophie Victoria Lily. Now, I do remember how Lilian changed to Lily. Lilian was my Nanny's middle name and she had passed away when I was only a few weeks pregnant. I called my mother 2 days before the birth to confirm that there was only on l in the name. She calls my aunt Jacki in England and calls me back to say that Jacki had looked at Nanny's birth certificate and her name was actually Irene Lily. Seriously? Everyone thought that it was Lilian. So Lily it became. It's very English her name, and the Irish part of me despises it. However, my very English mother? She was thrilled.

13. S......N. The girls' last name. Irish. Should we ever get married I'm still keeping my name, though I'd be willing to hyphenate.

I do realize that I could have just deleted all that Lily/Lilian confusion. But why not just share with you all what a complete eejit I am.