We welcomed [name_f]Theodora[/name_f] [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f], nn “[name_f]Tess[/name_f]”, on the 6th! She arrived early and we were not prepared with a concrete list, although we had been debating all along.
Here’s the story of her name:
I mentioned [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] to my husband early on. It appears as a mn in many places on each of our family trees and we wanted a family connection to the names. I noted to my husband that I read on the internet that “[name_f]Tess[/name_f]” was a nn for [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f]. We latched on to [name_f]Tess[/name_f] from then on and kept coming back to it again and again, but we didn’t like it as a stand-alone name and the traditional [name_f]Tess[/name_f] names just didn’t work for us (e.g., [name_f]Theresa[/name_f], [name_f]Tessa[/name_f]). We searched and searched on how to get to [name_f]Tess[/name_f] (Tesslyn, Tesni?), but nothing quite fit. And, really, is [name_f]Tess[/name_f] a nn for [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] alone?
[name_f]Theodora[/name_f] as a name emerged after she was born. I liked [name_f]Theda[/name_f], but my husband wasn’t sold. He’s always been fond of [name_f]Thea[/name_f]. Those options both come from [name_f]Theodora[/name_f]. And it seemed right as we discussed [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] as a name for a boy, but would probably not use it now if we had a boy given its spike in popularity. It also has a family connection as her great great great grandfather, who was probably her first relative to immigrate to the US, was named [name_m]Theodore[/name_m].
And, best of all, at least in our eyes, “[name_f]Theodora[/name_f] [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f]” brings us to [name_f]Tess[/name_f], which seems to have been her name all along.
