Namesake

This young woman is Gertrude Ten Cate, Craig's late maternal grandmother and the source of Laurel's middle name.

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We primarily wanted a middle name we liked, but if possible we also wanted it to pay tribute to Craig's side of the family.*

This was especially true after Laurel was born, because it turned out she resembled his side of the family, his mother** and maternal grandmother in particular. But we simply couldn't figure out how to make the naming work -- no offense intended, but Gertrude was not an option.

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When Laurel was born, she had no name. Or, rather, she had three possible names: Margaret, Alice, and Laurel. We had tried the same approach before Isaac was born, narrowing the field beforehand to three possible names and then waiting for the birth to see how we felt. In his case, within minutes of his birth we had finalized our decision. The choice was that clear.

Things weren't so easy with the new baby girl. I eliminated Margaret a few hours after the birth, because for some reason I felt the name went better on a blonde. But it took two and a half days to decide between the other two names.

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Before she was born, I liked Alice best and Craig liked Laurel best. But after she was born, our previous preferences dissolved into uncertainty. Craig tried to alternate evenly between the two names, although sometimes he confused the issue by calling her "Al-Laurel" or "Lor-Alice." Out loud I called her "missy" or "baby," but in private I whispered the two names to her, hoping for one of them to resonate. Neither one did.

Eventually the problem became clear: we had two equally great options for a first name, but we couldn't think of a great middle name to go with either one. Until we had a middle name, we were stuck.

Then, near dawn on Saturday, 48 hours after the baby's birth, I was nursing her and gazing out the window at the silhouette of the giant California Bay Laurel tree that dominates the hillside behind our bedroom. I was thinking sleepily how fitting it would be to use the name Laurel -- it would always remind me of that tree, and it would also pay tribute to Isaac's suggestion we name the baby Leaf. But what about a middle name?

Then I had a flash of clarity: Laurel Cate.

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As a middle name it had everything I wanted: one crisp syllable, initials which didn't spell anything (they are LCRT), and a connection to Craig's family. Plus I liked it as a name. It was slightly unorthodox to use just Cate, considering it is only half of his grandmother's maiden surname, it isn't usual to use a nickname as a middle name, and it is a variant spelling of the nickname to boot. However, since Laurel already has a hyphenated last name, we didn't want to use the whole "Ten Cate" because that would be way too many surnames in a row!

Excited, I told Craig that very night, and by mid-afternoon on Saturday we were both certain. About 60 hours after being born, our daughter had a name.

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*Isaac's middle name, Dale, pays tribute to my side of the family. Isaac was born on September 6, the birthday of my late paternal grandfather, whose first name was Dale. The name was on our long list of possibilities anyway, but it wasn't until my mother pointed out the shared birthday that the choice became clear. (Luckily she remembered it while we were still in the hospital!)

I like the symmetry of my son's middle name coming from his mother's father's father, and my daughter's middle name coming from her father's mother's mother.

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**If you've met Craig's mother Hazel, you might be wondering what on earth I'm talking about, since she and her granddaughter Laurel look nothing alike. That's because Craig was unlucky enough to lose his first mother, Doris, when he was quite young, but lucky enough to be adopted by his second mother, Hazel.

They both have similar-sounding botanical names, another nice instance of symmetry.

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Actually, Dale and Cate have a certain symmetry themselves.