What's In A Name?

When we found out we were having our second daughter, we were thrilled to revisit our girls list of names that we had compiled before having Ellie.

In Judaism, there are different traditions, rituals and beliefs relating to the naming of a child. It is considered a kind and symbolic gesture to name a newborn after the deceased. By doing so, the parents hope to instill the positive attributes of the deceased into the lives of the child and keep the memory of the deceased alive in the child. 

I was named after my maternal grandmother Charlotte who passed away when my mom was just 8 years old. Ellie’s Hebrew name is Michal, after her great grandfather Milton, who passed away when she was just 1 week old.

With Mira, everything just felt different. Her name was no exception. We wanted her to have a name that was meaningful to us, special for her, a name that represented hope, faith and love. Prior to her diagnosis, we had already decided on a name for her, but it just didn’t feel like it suited her anymore.

When we received the news that Mira would survive, a common phrase flooded our conversations and our inboxes. “She’s a miracle.”

Evan: “Why don’t we just name her Miracle?”

Me: “Because that sounds like a stripper’s name.”

Evan: “What if we just call her Mira?”

And that was that.

Her middle name, Joy,  has 2 meanings.

The first ties Mira to her big sister because the “Paige” in Ellie Paige is after Phish’s keyboardist Page McConnell. If you know Evan at all, you will understand this choice. Of all the songs (and there were many) that I have been forced to listen to over the years, “Joy” has always been our special song and the song I connect with the most.  

The second meaning goes back to a conversation I had with my sister-in-law during those dark and painful days. She said to me “you will find your joy again.”

Turns out, she was right. We found it again on July 14, 2016.

Her name is Mira Joy.