How much time do you really need to spend thinking about baby names? Well, you’d probably stop until your own baby(even in utero) “dictates” what she wants. And in our case, our baby girl did.
We’ve started thinking about baby names long before we thought of making babies. My choice for a baby girl’s name was Tala (star). My husband thought of naming our baby boy Arjuna, a character he read from the book Bhagavad Gita. Unfortunately, they’re out of our list.
During the fourth month, we shifted to either Maristela or Aaron. I opted for Maristela because it has a Marian touch to it, and it’s a mix of my father and grandmother’s names. Aaron, on the other hand, means High Mountain and is a biblical character. Options are still open, not until after we determined the gender.
I had my routine ultrasound during the fifth month of pregnancy. We were glad to see that the baby is doing fine, doing all those kicks and punches and even swallowing. I am content seeing her arms, legs, hands and feet complete, and heart in steady pumping action. We’re even more elated to know the gender bythis time. At least I know I’ll be buying more pink stuff. Yes, the baby is a girl, and she is expected to come out September 17.
It’s easier to play the name game this time. We trimmed down our options. It has to start with A. So, being opera buffs, we want to call her Aria (Italian for Air, a solo piece sung by the lead opera character). It can stand alone as her name, actually, but it’s much cuter as a nickname. Still, wes earched for other options, so we added a third syllable. It could be Arianne or Arianna, until I saw the German Ariadne (from another opera, Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss). I almost considered Ariadna, which is the Spanish variation, and is the real name of Mexican star Thalia aka MariMar. In the meantime, I settled with Ariadne.
The name Ariadne (pronounced as ar-YAD-nee) means holy woman. She was the daughter of the Cretan king Minos in Greek mythology. As far as the website babynamespedia.com is concerned, this was the only info available. So I looked for other baby name websites, until I found out about Saint Ariadne.
Saint Ariadne of Phrygia was a slave of a Phrygian prince and refused to participate in a rite intended for a pagan god that involved flogging. As she escaped from the authorities, a chasm opened miraculously and she was entombed.
As I clicked on the link, I found this: her feast day is September 17,130 AD. I was crying while my husband was speechless. Both of us cannot believe that somehow our baby was telling us she already had a name. I remember the Ilocano epic Biag ni Lam-ang where the young boy Lam-ang named himself as well. Now my baby’s a record breaker. It all happened on the evening of May 6th.
If this is not Divine Intervention, then I don’t know what is. All I know is that my baby spoke to me, telling me that everything will be fine despite the risks of my pregnancy. Now, my husband and I are praying for the intercession of this unknown saint. And I shall not cease to seek for her intercession.
Saint Ariadne, pray for us.
– Touringkitty