When my husband and I found out we were going to have a baby, the perfect name came to us immediately. We didn’t need to make a list of baby names or do an online search. We are bookish (read: nerdy), intense (read: anxious) and unique (read: weird), so we knew our child should obviously be named Linus. It was perfect. Except … we were having a girl.
With that 20 week ultrasound began weeks of high stakes debate over the name. While my man and I are on the same page about most things, our tastes are totally different — and that extended to names. I wanted classic or funky: Elizabeth, Lucy, Hadley, Kelsey. He wanted Nordic and strong: Ingrid, Hilda, Astrid. Our copy of The Baby Name Wizard was highlighted and dog-eared like a well-loved novel. We finally came up with a list of compromises: Clover, Wiley, Avery, Lorelei, Liesel.
But not one of these names felt like It. The sounds didn’t work with the last name, or they were too unusual or too much about wearing play clothes made from curtains and dating Nazi youth. The idea of giving my daughter a name I didn’t love completely made me feel like I was failing somehow. I had this terrible fear that I would end up with a little girl whose name didn’t suit her. That the name would be just a place holder and she would end up changing it to Infinity or Celestine. Since my name, Sarah, was one of the most popular for girls born in the late 70’s and 80’s I grew up never feeling my name was unique. In my grade of 40 kids, there were five Sarahs. And I was one of two Sarah Ms. I didn’t want this curse for my daughter. But I also didn’t want her to have to spell or explain her name every time she introduced herself to someone.
But that didn’t happen. Instead, I came up with the perfect name.
1st Glimpse Inc. 3D/4D Ultrasound
Sarah Moriarty is a writer and editor. Sarah’s writing has appeared in such hallowed places as her blog, her mother’s email inbox, the backs of Value Pack envelopes and a waist-high stack of mole skin journals. In addition, Sarah has contributed to F’Dinparkslope.com and edited fiction for Lost Magazine. Sarah’s first novel, The Rusticators, is forthcoming from Islandport Press in 2016. A resident of Brooklyn for the last eleven years, Sarah lives with her husband, daughter and a dwindling population of cats. Check out more of Sarah’s work at sarahmoriarty.com.