Names

I started writing a comment on a blog called So Close written by a witty, South African mom named Tertia. You can read about her take on names. Once my comment exceeded 3 paragraphs, I figured I should take it here...

We were sensitive to the fact that having the last name Stoll meant we wouldn't pick a first name beginning with an "S". Oh my, what if our kid had a lisp? Themus Tholl.

I was named for a television character from a soap opera my parents watched while my mom was pregnant. I had a very common name growing up. There was always at least another Heather in class, and by college there were usually 2 or 3 others. Throughout school I was always called by my full name "Heather Fisher" or "Heather F." I wanted my kids to not have that experience, but still not have so uncommon a name that it isn't pronounced or spelled properly.

We liked the name Lauren after watching the first couple of seasons of Boston Public. Jessalyn Gilsig's character, a former nun who became a teacher, was named Lauren.The show wasn't very popular, and as a result, not very long lived. We liked the way Lauren Elisabeth sounded, and we decided on the spelling because it was my nurse's name. Both my sister and my cousin Allison middle names are Elizabeth.

The other girl's name I'd always liked was Lindsay. You'll remember, of course, because it was a much more popular longer run show that it was Kelli Williams' character on The Practice.
It was just 2 days before Lindsay was born that we decided on the middle name Alexandra. We planned to choose an "A" name to honor Alec's grandfather Arthur, who passed a year ago this week.

We never chose a boy's name for Lindsay...not that we planned to use Lindsey as our boy's name...it just never occurred to us to do that. Before we found out at 18 weeks that Lauren is a girl, we'd discussed naming our son Jacob.

I have no idea what we would've named our kids were it not for David E. Kelley.