Week 7
[name_u]Tempest[/name_u] [name_f]Alcione[/name_f] [name_f]Maeve[/name_f]
As I would say it:
As my husband would say it:
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So, many of you know that HF’s name was settled from the very earliest of days of our relationship. That’s mostly because on our way TO our first date (riding the red line of the [name_m]Boston[/name_m] T subway/underground to our dinner reservation), I started talking to him about the family history research I was working on and my many findings about my 2nd great grandpa H0rat10 Hawk1n$. He said, “Wow, what an awesome name!” and I said, “Yeah. I want to name my firstborn son [HF].” And he said, “That’s a really awesome name.” So that pretty much settled things. But we didn’t talk girls’ names on our first date or even for a pretty long time thereafter. We have always struggled finding girls’ names he is just as happy with as he was with HF. [name_u]Tempest[/name_u] (and [name_f]Minerva[/name_f]) were the first two names that when I mentioned them, he was like, “That’s a really awesome name!” again. So it has been on my list for a very, very long time.
I love [name_m]Shakespeare[/name_m]'s The [name_u]Tempest[/name_u]. [name_f]Tempestt[/name_f] Bledsoe is a decent association. The “temptress” “pest” and “temper tantrum” things don’t dissuade me much. We will deal. The imagery of power and nature and wind and rain is beautiful to me. She is hail and gale and giant mighty ocean swells that are both beautiful and terrifying. She weilds power and commands the space she occupies but also has a sweet, easily underestimable (that’s a word now) quality to her. You never really know which side you’ll get.
Issues are that she doesn’t really share a style with her brothers’ firsts as much. That said, I don’t think she is hopelessly mismatched either. [name_m]Just[/name_m] different and standout. I don’t know what her nicknames would be, but I guess she doesn’t need one (I mean, we don’t actually use them for our sons either, but people ALWAYS ask what nicknames they have so I supply them and then when I model how I use their full names people catch on and use their names, too…). Tippy would be cute. [name_f]Tess[/name_f]. [name_f]Emi[/name_f] would work well for the Japanese component.
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[details=“[name_f]Alcione[/name_f]”]
[name_f]Alcione[/name_f] is one of the -io names that caches the match with her brothers’ firsts really well. It certainly feels less familiar than many of my names, in good and bad ways. I know the pronunciation can hang people up and there are many correct ways to say it but I’m pretty decided on how I like it.
I went by [name_f]Elsie[/name_f] growing up (for my initials LC) and I like the echo in [name_f]Alcione[/name_f]. I also like the similarity to the name [name_f]Alcie[/name_f]/Alcine for her “strong-willed” nature and the poetic enchantress vibes of [name_m]Orlando[/name_m] Furioso and also the opera, an ounce of which bleeds into [name_f]Alcione[/name_f] by virtue of her not being simply [name_u]Halcyon[/name_u].
That said, I love the [name_u]Halcyon[/name_u] mythology and the imagery of the kingfisher bird and her plumage. Also, in the kids’ room, we have a Chinese brush painting that hangs above the crib that my husband’s grandmother painted when she was young and having her kids. I’m not sure whether it is meant to be a kingfisher or not, but it does look like one and I’ve got such a soft spot for that painting.
[name_f]Alcione[/name_f] is balmy sea breeze and placid waters. [name_f]Alcione[/name_f] is nesting during the quiet, cozy days of winter.
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[details=“[name_f]Maeve[/name_f]”]
I think [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] is the number one name my partner would choose as a middle. He loves the fairy and [name_m]Shakespeare[/name_m] associations. [name_f]Queen[/name_f] [name_f]Mab[/name_f] is enchanting. While he doesn’t think his mom would want to be honored by her first name, M@bel, this would always be a nod in her direction.
I love what a bad@$$ warrior queen [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] is. I like the “intoxicating” “[name_u]Mead[/name_u] Woman” meaning on the level of head-spinning enchantment and honey-sweet confusion that gets you every time. Then again, we are teetotalers, so I don’t know if that’s weird. I also love that she is Irish. I’m a good chunk Irish (that’s the [name_u]Roche[/name_u] maternal line) and I love so many Irish names but my husband has never been on board (he likes Líadan however). This would be my one opportunity to actually give nod to that heritage. I love that she also has the V. I loVe the letter V and although she isn’t a y to complete the XYZ set with the sibling middles, she is close in that end-of-alphabet spiky way.
[name_f]Maeve[/name_f] is clove and cardamom in a honeyed apple cider. She is swirly, gilded triskelion mandala, a labyrinth of Celtic knots with no end and no up or down in which to lose yourself forever.
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[details=“[name_u]Tempest[/name_u] [name_f]Alcione[/name_f] [name_f]Maeve[/name_f]”]
We come back to T.A.M., initials honoring my MIL’s surname and thereby my husband’s maternal line.
In [name_f]Alcione[/name_f] she gains the necessary [name_u]French[/name_u] name needed, as I wouldn’t be calling our daughter [name_f]Tempeste[/name_f] or Tempête in [name_u]French[/name_u] as it just feels strange. [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] has become widely popular in [name_f]France[/name_f] in recent years, but I’d prefer [name_f]Alcione[/name_f] based on the melodious pronunciation and intrigue.
[name_f]Alcione[/name_f] is also the reprieve between the battering strength of the storm and the swirling dizziness of intoxication. The quiet in the eye of the storm or just before or after.
I wonder if this name is too definitive. It leaves less room to grow than some of my others. She had best be fierce. She has best be a force to reckon with.
But halcyon being the idyllic period of calm and quiet contentment and peace, contrasted by the obvious tempestuousness of [name_u]Tempest[/name_u]… that in a nutshell has been this period of early parenthood. Where H0rat1O was born into pure happiness and his pregnancy and birth a ridiculously happy time befitting his name, An@$ta$io came in to resurrect hope in our home after some darkness and aimless roaming throughout our adoption process, and this baby will be born into such a mixture of the joys and chaos of a home with two rowdy toddler brothers. I like the idea of her having a lot of contradictory feistiness and peacemaking, rage and calm, etc. about her and that being reflected in her name feels fitting.
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So, WDYT?