In 1909 a redheaded baby girl was born in Kentucky. She loved to bake and she loved to sing, and she grew up to have four boys. At each birth her husband said, "Now this one's a little redheaded girl for Mama." He was wrong every time.
The third of those four boys grew up and got married, and in 1970 he and his wife had a redheaded baby girl. (That was me.) I love to bake (my grandmother taught me how) and I love to sing, and I wondered all through my fourth son's gestation if I would have four boys like my grandmother.
I thought that if I had a daughter, I might name her in honor of my grandmother, who waited and waited for a little girl. I didn't want to name her after my grandmother, exactly, because the girls' names from that family are not tearing up the SSA charts here in the 21st century. (Two of her sisters, for instance, were named Lorenza and Melvie.) It occurred to me, though, that I was very partial to a girl's name that was a near-anagram of my grandmother's name. And my husband liked it too, which was unusual. (Our conversations about names go like this: [me] What about x? [him] No. What about y? [me] No. What about z? [him] No. Etc.)
There are two meanings attributed to the name we liked. One, as I mentioned, is "shining light"; the other is "mercy." Now this is a little odd, because for years I said I'd like to name a child something that meant light or something that meant mercy. I lobbied my husband to name a boy "Foster," which is a transliteration of the Greek word for "light-bearers" used in Philippians 2:15. (He said no.) How surprising, then, to find both meanings connected to this one name: our daughter's name.
In our discussions of girls' names over the years, my husband's grandmother's name surfaced over and over again. She was a Polish woman from Milwaukee, hard-working and resourceful. I did not meet her until after Alzheimer's had taken a heavy toll, but I could still see glimpses of the kind of person she must have been, reflected in the way her family loved her. Her name also has a Marian connection, which was important to us. So that's our baby's middle name.
About the first 20 times I said her full name to someone, I teared up a little bit. (In the Vital Records office, for instance.) It means a lot to me -- it says something about where she comes from and where I hope she is going. I have decided that her nom du blog is going to be Stella, another pretty old-fashioned name with the same echo of Phil. 2:15. Even though I prefer to keep my kids' real names off the blog, I wanted to tell you how we chose this one. I wish her great-grandmothers could have known her. But I'll make sure she knows about them.
That's beautiful.
Posted by: Amy F | February 06, 2009 at 08:26 PM
OH, that's just so wonderful... such a beautiful, marvelously interwoven story. So moving... that you were the one to realize your grandmother's dream to have a redheaded little girl.
And you're only one year older than me, just that! :-) (maybe less, depending on birthdays, mine's 7/7).
anyway, would you please email me the name, I really want to know. And... while you're at it, maybe the names of the four lovely boys, if you don't mind ;-)
I feel wistful when I think about you and your four boys and the fifth girl. You may (or may not) remember that I've commented here (I'm sure) that my mother-in-law had four boys, waiting for the elusive girl. So far, she has five grandsons. My SIL and I really wanted another baby, but we have this conviction that it'd be another boy. Oh well. The Lord knows best. I think that perhaps I wouldn't have a good relationship with my daughter. I've written about it here:
(and, sadly, my mom read the post and got very upset, but I decided not to delete it, to be true to myself -- it was partly a language barrier problem too). Anyway, if you'd like, you can check it out:
http://mamaintranslation.blogspot.com/2006/05/daughter-i-didnt-have.html
And now I have to read the lovely post again, and see if there are any other ones I've missed! ;-)
Posted by: Lilian | February 06, 2009 at 08:58 PM
How old were you when your grandma died? It sounds like she was a wonderful woman!
Posted by: Lilian | February 06, 2009 at 09:00 PM
Beautiful story. I love how her names are so connected to your family. She'll know how much she was loved and how much her great-grandmothers were loved too.
Also: glad her nom de blog isn't Olga. :)
Posted by: mary | February 07, 2009 at 01:40 PM
My husband and I have had a name picked out for a little girl since long before we married (we have no children yet, but hopefully soon). It's a good name--a fairly common one, but one which has special significance for us because it's both a family name (my middle name, my mother's middle name, and the name of the aunt that raised my grandfather) and the name of my best friend, who is like a sister to my husband and I, and who introduced us.
I want that little girl's middle name to be the name of my husband's beloved grandmother, but I think my husband does not understand why I want to name our children after relatives. I'm not quite sure either--I think it may have something to do with the influence of my father and maternal grandfather, who are both very interested in genealogy, and my grandmother, who is Southern.
Posted by: JaneC | February 07, 2009 at 06:46 PM
Stella! Hey Stella!
Posted by: Stephen | February 07, 2009 at 08:18 PM
Olga has gone offline
Posted by: Stephen | February 07, 2009 at 08:22 PM