Much ado about a name

Tash here talked about the delimma of naming her baby girl Athalia. Which reminds me, we've had our share. My daughter's full name is Xofia Enia. These names are from my maternal and paternal grandmas. Xofia is from Sofronia, and Enia is from Arsenia. Xofia is a Greek name which means wisdom and Enia is of Scottish origin which means jewel/fiery. The moment I said those names out loud, I instantly fell in love with them. They tasted good to the mouth and left a satisfying sound to the lips. At least, that's how a mother felt. I just knew it was perfect for her.

Then there's the family name that we had to deal with. It was later realized that if we were to write her initials down, it would spell X.E.S., the reverse of the word sex. And you know how teenagers (and some people with maturity levels to that of a 13-year-old) react upon mention of the word. If you thought you could explain that the word has other meanings, think again. The first thing that will come to mind will always be what we all are thinking right now. It's just how the human mind functions. Especially the teenagers. At about this age group would my baby start forming her own self-image. Mostly developed due to a lot of factors, but one major contributing factor to how we perceive ourselves is the society's opinion on us, on things that we do, against the norms, within standards. In a teenager's world, that translates to her peers' opinion.

We tried different combinations just so we won't end up with a second name that starts with an E. I suggested we place Enia before Xofia -- still sounded good to me, anyway. But her daddy won't have any of it. He so wanted the name Xofia to be written first. He had his reasons, and I also agreed with them.

Her Ninang Ayin was quick to point out that I was wrong. That Xofie's initial would be X.E.D.S. -- because hey, she herself was never A.Q., but A.M.Q. Being the mother of a baby girl, I should impose upon her to use my maiden name, that it should not be taken for granted just because we live in a patriarchal world. Cool point. Takes out the feminist in me.

And for whatever it's worth, if my baby will be ridiculed because of her initials, I think that she should not feel bad about it. She must realize that she can do a lot of things with an initial as unique as hers. Her imagination is her only limit. And like Tash, if my baby is ridiculed by the people around her because she happens to have funny initials, then I think that crowd needs to grow up.

Heck, I know she'd just throw her head back and flip those locks behind her shoulders and walk away from that shallow crowd. True to her name, I'd say.

xoxo