My daughter will not be a princess

Since we've been talking about names, (and by talking I mean that I wrote a post a couple days ago that you may or may not have read) I thought I'd entertain you with a tale about naming our first child.

The year was 2003. My husband had recently begun his career in the aerospace industry. He had then, and has now, an interest in flight and space. Don't worry, that's not a random fact- it will be relevant to my story.

If you've ever had a child, or even if you've ever had a pet, you probably know the weight and responsibility that comes with choosing a name for a living creature. Or maybe the obsession over making sure the name has no overt connotations just lies with adults with names like "Angel." Perhaps if your name is "Sophia" you didn't lose hundreds of hours of sleep when choosing a name. I can't be sure. I can only own my madness...

So, back to my husband. First name he suggests to me to for our unborn child was Ariel. Lovely name. Conversation goes like this:
 Me: What?!? Like the Little Mermaid?
Him: What? I didn't know that was the little mermaid's name.
Me: Well every woman and child in America does. That would be like naming her Cinderella. No.

Few weeks go by. He suggests a second name. (he's slow at brainstorming) Aurora. Clearly he was going for a flight/space themed name. Again, lovely name.
Me: What?!? Aurora is Sleeping Beauty's name!
Him: What? I didn't know that.
Me: Well I do. No. No. princess. names.

Few more weeks go by. Third name suggestion. (I'm given to exaggerate to make points or even get laughs, but when I say these were the names he suggested, and the only names he suggested, it is the literal truth.) Ok. Third name suggestion: Jasmine.
Me: Jasmine?!?! That's Aladdin's girlfriend!!

Needless to say, we did not name her Jasmine. We gave her a blank slate name. One that would fit if she aspires to royalty or joins a biker gang. No songs with her name. No famous stories. No famous people. Familiar enough that people can pronounce easily, but not so common she runs into others with her name all the time. Ends in an "a" to sound better with our last name that starts with an "H." I could go on. But I'll stop with that glimpse into my madness...

And as for my husband, he swears he had/has no unconscious Disney fascination/fixation. But I do watch him closely when we go to Walt Disney World...

oh, if by some remote chance you are reading this and NOT related to me or a good friend, first I'd like to say, thank you. And second I'd like to acknowledge that I get you might want to know what we did name her. And finally, I'd like to apologize for disappointing you. I really don't like to start relationships this way... But I decided to not use my girls real names on this blog. Not because I'm worried about safety. Which I know is a real concern; it just isn't the thing that keeps me up at night. The reason I'm going to call them Cherub A and Cherub J is actually more in line with my madness about the blank slate. I don't want them to be "searchable" on the internet by their names because of my creative outlet.

I want to let her write her own story one day. Biker or Princess. Or Biker Princess. And then a song can be written with her name. The Song of the Biker Princess. And it will be passed down for generations. And then one day a husband somewhere will suggest to his wife naming their daughter this name of my daughter made into a song. And the wife will say, "What?!?! Like the Biker Princess? No."
           And so it was written. By this one random angel...