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| Ivy in her hammock |
OK, we didn't tell anyone what we were naming Ivy. Ivy is my favorite girl name of all time. When I was a girl we had a bed of ivy in our side garden, and the little purple flowers, something like stars, were my favorite, more than any flower in my mother's amazing gardens (yes, plural... there was more than 1). It was originally intended for Rosemary (Rosie), but we took a lot of heat for it from, shall we say, various sectors, and I wanted to name a baby after my maternal grandmother, so in the end, we decided to switch our first daughter's name to from Ivy Rose to Rosemary Catherine (also due to my then-recent obsession with Catherine of Siena).
Then Rosie was born on the feast of St. Ives, which we didn't notice till she was a month old. When I told Ed, he wanted to change her name. No kidding. He was more than upset and really, so was I. But Rosie was already Rosie, and we knew another baby girl would come.
And come she did!
Since I didn't want any more guff about baby names, during the pregnancy we just didn't tell anyone our name. After all, once a baby is born and named, no one feels very free to say things like, you know:
"That's an awful name!"
"I hate that name!"
"Oh, like poison ivy!?!?" (Ummmm, so clever, people.)
After a baby is born and named, people say politely, "O how nice," and then go talk about your baby's name behind your back. Right?
So unfortunately
NO ONE COULD WARN ME THAT BEYONCE' NAMED HER DAUGHTER IVY!!!
Blue Ivy, actually. Or that Ivy is currently on a Disney Channel show, once appeared on 90210, and is also featured on some popular video game. Or that Ivy is currently in the top 100 baby names in Great Britain, according to some sources.
Well, rain on my parade why don't you. I thought people would just think I was odd, and slightly eccentric, maybe obsessed with herbs and other plant life, when I introduced 2 daughters named Rosemary and Ivy... now- horror of horrors- people are going to think I'm TRENDY.
UGH.
Now every time someone asks her name I'm going to want to say "Ivy- but really, I didn't know about Beyonce' when I named her. I had the name picked out for YEARS..." while blushing and feeling really dumb.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Don't tell anyone your baby names in advance of said baby's birth... but, for heaven's sake, don't forget to consult Google.
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
-Juliet
I'm still babymooning, but soon I'll return to my regular old blogger self... I've got some allergy remedies to share, a new cough syrup recipe, and some gluten-free recipes to share. Gluten-free recipe development is a pretty slow thing, I'm finding, so bear with me. Heaven forbid I post any recipe here before achieving 100% success. You know, gummy cookies- I just can't do that to you.
We also thought we had chosen such interesting, off-beat names. Either we'd never heard them before or (in the case of our girl) it was a very old and out-of-use name. Surprise, every one else having babies in the same five-year period thought the same thing. So now, my children are the Jessica's of the early 2000s. (PS I love the name Ivy, I knew you when you wanted to changed Rosie's name, AND if it makes you feel better I didn't know about Beyonce's baby until you told me, just now. xo)
ReplyDeleteI feel just like you about baby names. I really try to avoid the popular names yet the old time names that I liked are now becoming popular...UGH! I think Ivy is a beautiful name and I don't know anyone with that name (although I didn't know beyonce named her baby that...or even that she had a baby)
ReplyDeleteWell you and Ed have so much in common with Beyonce an Jay-Z, so it makes sense that you would be on the same page with baby names.
ReplyDeleteI love the name and I did not think of Beyonce when I heard it. And I consider myself to be pretty pop culture-savvy, for what it's worth...
has anyone actually pointed out the beyonce connection? when you first mentioned it, i thought, "huh. i thought she named her baby blue." the first name is so unconventional, i doubt many people remember the middle name.
ReplyDeleteif max was a girl, he would have been anna lucia, which was apparently a character from the show "lost", but since we didn't watch it, we didn't know. although i would have been annoyed at the time, shows come and go so much, people quickly forget.
i think your botanical girls have lovely names : )
Well, you all know me- I can overreact to anything, right? ;)
ReplyDeleteThis cracked me up. I completely understand. I was a bit taken aback when someone mentioned King Julian (from Madagascar) in response to Julian's name. Um, no, that's not where we got the idea. . .
ReplyDeleteIvy is a beautiful name for a beautiful baby. :-) We're going to name our baby girl Lily, and I don't care how many other Lilys there are or whether or not it's popular. I like it that much. :-) I like old-fashioned names, too...even though (or maybe because? I'm not sure)they are popular now. Anna is a popular name, too, and there are TONS of Annas and Hannahs in the Wichita homeschool group...but at St. Anne's, Anna is the ONLY Anna in her class! Funny, huh?
ReplyDeleteHa, I would have never known! I don't follow the famous people! But I'm glad I stopped by again. I have literally had zero time to do anything other than unpack..until right now. =) It's so nice to read your blog, because I really enjoyed getting to know you. =)
ReplyDelete