What's in a Name

A question we've been asked is "What are you going to call her?"  So here's the story behind her name.

Although she was born in the early morning, her name didn't come until much later that day.  Aaron wanted to name her Caroline and I wanted Emily.  For a few hours we were calling her Elizabeth.  But after months of debating, we ended up giving our daughter one of the final three names we'd had in case Nate was a girl.  Margaret in memory of my great Aunt Margaret, known to us kids at Moe.  And Elizabeth to honor my grandmother (Betty) and my mom (Beth).

Aunt Moe lived next door to my grandparents, her brother and his wife.  She wasn't able to have children of her own so she did the next best thing and treated my Mom and her siblings like her own children and then the 16 of us like grandchildren.  It's no surprise we have memories and special names for treats she would always have for us.  Like Moe Moe cookies (Nilla Wafers) and Moe Moe jewelry (Avon costume jewelry she always had in buckets for us to play with).

And my Grammy.  Well, anyone who knows me knows how special she was to me.  It's always sad for me that Aaron only got to know her as she entered into Alzheimer's but I'm glad he was able to know her at all.

I look at Margaret and I'm so moved as I think about these two women she'll never meet but who I know watch over her every day.

So what to call her?  The plan if our first child had been a girl was to call her Maggie.  But we have friends who recently had a Maggie and I worried it's too close to our niece's name.  We searched for other options and the debate came down to Maisie (Aaron) and Margo (Maura).  But Nate's insisting on calling her Margaret and laughs when we suggest any nickname.  And indeed, it seems most people are sticking with Margaret.

Margaret will also be named in honor of another grandparent when we give her her Hebrew name.  But I'll hold off on that for now as Aaron works out the details.