What's in a name?

Monday, 4 December - One week old

It's official - Beatrice has a name! Even though we had a name picked for her when we checked out of the hospital, Beatrice's ankle bracelets (England's low-tech version of baby LoJack) simply stated she was the FEMALE child of Sarah Jarvis. What do they do with twins? FEMALE1 and 2? Anyway, today we went to the Registry Office and got her official birth certificate! So she is finally, and officially as it is now hand-written in the Registry Office's Birth Records (they said their computers are just for back up!!), Beatrice Virginia Jarvis.

Lots of folks have asked us about her name, so we thought we'd share how we came up with it. Virginia was easy - she is named after her maternal great-grandmother, Virginia Baxter, widely known to all as Mama. We thought it was appropriate especially given that Mama also spent some time in St Mary's Hospital the last time she was in London - with a broken knee! Also we can only hope Beatrice grows up to be as wonderful and loving as her namesake. Given her current growth though I'm not sure little Beatrice will be able to also wear Mama's wedding dress, as her mother, grandmother and Aunt Nancy all did...

Beatrice as a name was also pretty easy. Though not inspired by Dante, we do like the meaning of her name in Latin - blessed, happy, bringer of joy. We found it in the name book (one of those with 25k names!) Grandma Elizabeth gave Zack for his birthday when we were in Georgia in June. By July, Zack was calling "it" Beatrice he was so sure she was going to be a girl. Well, it was also either that or Sheniqua.

What I find most interesting though is that while we do definitely call her Beatrice, so many other names keep popping out of our mouths when we talk and sing to her - Sweetheart, Precious, Honey, Fuss-Budget, and (from Jasandra) Queen Bea. Zack's are pretty interesting though and I've been trying to keep track of them - Squeaker, Poop-the-Pooper, Bea, Pee-atrice, BV, Beev, Beavis, and my personal favorite - Homegirl.