What's in a Name?

So I thought I would explain our name choice. We've been keeping it a secret for so long and then we just threw it out there with no explanation, which it totally deserves. But first, I want to make it clear... we did not name her after Violet Affleck.

It's an excellent name. And the combination is just great. Lydia Violet, Lydia Violet, Lydia Violet. I just love saying the two names together. So here's the explanation behind both:

Lydia: The baby's first name needed to mean something to us and it also needed to be the name of a Russian saint. Well, it is a beautiful name and Lydia was the name of Dima's mother, Dusia's, mother. I love it. It's little old fashioned and not typical or faddish, which I think most people that know us will say fits both Dima's and my mode of operation. Lydia will certainly not grow up sharing her name with her schoolmates. "Lydia" also fit our second requirement, to be the name of a Russian Orthodox saint, the name that she will be baptised with. Here's some more information about St. Lydia. (Unfortunately it's in Russian. Sorry Americanski.) So, check on both counts. We came to agreement on this name pretty much from the first. And we agreed on it long before we were pregnant, or even married, and never waivered.

Violet: Lydia's middle name is in honor of my "Annie," my dad's mother, Viola. This is the woman that taught me how to catch blue crabs on a line and how to get the raw chicken bait on the hook without losing my lunch. She was a nurse, an awesome lady, a great storyteller and grandmother and a huge influence in my life. This year would have been her 100th birthday.

There's something else I want to share. I had pretty much convinced myself we were having a boy. The heart rate was low and I just had a feeling. This feeling didn't kick in until the very last... maybe the last week, but still subconsciously I had convinced myself pretty well. Before then I had been very flip-floppy about the gender, or not sure at all. Strangely though, at the same time, for about a week before the birth, the name Lydia was showing up everywhere for me. Dima and I watched two movies with characters named Lydia. And strangely I got spam e-mail from multiple Lydias more than a few times. (I'll have to get Frederick, the IT Director at work, to explain that one.) Finally, as we were leaving for the hospital I bent over to pick something up and when I stood up I was face-to-face with my Annie's photograph. For me that was a wonderful moment, an acknowledgement, but I didn't see it as more than that.

Still even with all these cues, signs, premonitions, or whatever you want to call them I was stunned after the baby's arrival when Dima said, "It's a girl!" Maybe it was a strange coincidence or maybe the way these two great women were trying to give me a heads-up. Either way we as so pleased to have Lydia Violet Ekzarkhov here with us.