What's In A Name
One thing that stands out in our conversations with all of you over the past month has been the overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic response to our selection of Anna Sophia as our daughter's name. People genuinely seem to love it, which is obviously quite gratifying to us. Responses have ranged from "It goes so well with Gustafson!" to "Two very important biblical names!" - both of which, of course, were considerations in the selection process. So I thought I'd share a bit about how and when we arrived at our chosen moniker.
When we first wrote down our lists of potential names, Anna was one of names on Karen's list and Sophia was one on mine. (You may recall that none of the names on either list were duplicated on the other.) But neither of us felt very strongly about either name at the time.
We expanded the list to include family names, and variations of Anne kept popping up all over the place. My Ukranian great-grandmother and her mother were both named Anna. My third great-grandmother from Holland was named Antoinette. One of Karen's English second great-grandmothers was named Ann, another was Mary Ann. (Incidentally, Sophia also has a familial connection. My great-grandmother from Sweden, the last generation of that line to remain in Sweden, was named Hilda Sofia.)
Somewhere along the line, I started putting names together from the broader list. Anna Sophia was one of first combinations I came up with, and one that I kept coming back to as one of my favorites.
But we didn't actually settle on it until a couple hours after our little one was born. We had been down to three names for quite some time, but it eventually became clear that we weren't going to be able to decide before she actually arrived. So after Yury got us settled in our recovery room (a very quiet corner spot with panoramic windows - Yury pulled some strings after the fiasco that was our labor experience), I sat down on Karen's bed and we wrote down the three names on my notepad. It only took a minute or so to agree that we liked "Anna Sophia" the best.
And before you ask, no, I can't tell you what the other names were, because they will be on the list again if we have future daughters. Sorry - you'll just have to tune in next time.
When we first wrote down our lists of potential names, Anna was one of names on Karen's list and Sophia was one on mine. (You may recall that none of the names on either list were duplicated on the other.) But neither of us felt very strongly about either name at the time.
We expanded the list to include family names, and variations of Anne kept popping up all over the place. My Ukranian great-grandmother and her mother were both named Anna. My third great-grandmother from Holland was named Antoinette. One of Karen's English second great-grandmothers was named Ann, another was Mary Ann. (Incidentally, Sophia also has a familial connection. My great-grandmother from Sweden, the last generation of that line to remain in Sweden, was named Hilda Sofia.)
Somewhere along the line, I started putting names together from the broader list. Anna Sophia was one of first combinations I came up with, and one that I kept coming back to as one of my favorites.
But we didn't actually settle on it until a couple hours after our little one was born. We had been down to three names for quite some time, but it eventually became clear that we weren't going to be able to decide before she actually arrived. So after Yury got us settled in our recovery room (a very quiet corner spot with panoramic windows - Yury pulled some strings after the fiasco that was our labor experience), I sat down on Karen's bed and we wrote down the three names on my notepad. It only took a minute or so to agree that we liked "Anna Sophia" the best.
And before you ask, no, I can't tell you what the other names were, because they will be on the list again if we have future daughters. Sorry - you'll just have to tune in next time.
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