Tuesday, November 10, 2009

What's in a name?

Yesterday someone asked me how Andy and I picked the names John Macnamee and Elinor Anne. John Macnamee is Andy’s great-grandfather’s name on his father’s side. Andy’s family is very Irish.
Andy and I had a difficult time agreeing on a girl’s name. I wanted to name her Callahan, which is a family name on my side. However, he did not like the use of last names as a first name. Personally, I think it would have been cute. We both liked the name Elinor however Andy liked the traditional spelling Eleanor. I pressed to spell it my way after the character from Jane Austen’s book Sense & Sensibility.
Sense & Sensibility is my favorite book and I also love the movie. Elinor Dashwood is the central character and she is the “Sense”. She is intellectual, cool, prudent and unselfish. She puts others feelings before her own. She is a faithful friend and is not flighty. She is strong in the face of heartache and keeps her feelings to herself. She holds her family together. But in the end – she gets her man.
And that my friends is how my Ellie got her name.

No comments:

Post a Comment