Naming humans

Like most neurotics who think about having kids (or not having kids, but maybe having kids, if…), I have thought about potential offspring names for many years; however, it is a different task when a child is actually on it’s way. Then you have to factor in the other half of its creation which was something you could only speculate before. While there were a lot names I had in mind before, none seemed fitting to a half Asian child (usually due to pronunciation issues) or fitting to my husband’s surname, my new name.

So we started thinking about lots of short, simply, international names. Well I did, my husband does not spend nearly as much time thinking about things as I do. I really seem to enjoy thinking…

While we had several finalists when our daughter was born, we chose a name that came to us after her birth. In this way, my husband has the advantage with not thinking so much, because he offered up a very unique and interesting name that I love. My concern is, will she love it? On her 3rd day of life, we were literally saying to each other,

“Either way, you choose.”

“No, I like both, too, you choose.”

“Ok, so it’s ****?”

“Ok!”

“Really? It can be ***”

“OK! ***”

“Are you sure?”

What was so interesting to me is that the names embodied completely different images to me. I do believe that your name shapes you in some way, and not just if it is crazy or strange. So we were debating between an incredibly popular name and a unique name that only exists in nicknames and not so common at that. We chose the latter: Fio. I hope she loves it or learns to and that it shapes her in good ways and fits the shape she feels! The following graced my wall on Facebook:

A very universally unique name, for our international lady. We hope she likes it!! 

…so far she also goes by Super Chunk, Babe, Bubs, Tane-chan, Angel, Bendy, Beauty, and a few others, but Fio just kind of called out to us, and after much delineation on it’s uniqueness, we decided to embrace the calling! 

世界中でも珍しい名前なんですが、いろんな国の名前のニックネームです。「フィオ」というは「フィオナ」とか「フィオレ」とかのニックネームできるような名前です。「フィオ」だけの意味ないけどフールネームは「美しい」と「花」になります。今年世界中に「フィオ」に生まれる児は一人だけかもしれませんが、顔みると「フィオ」という名前はバッチリ似合うと思いました。大きくなっても自分も好きならいいね！Happy Birthday, FIO!