Hi everyone! Our daughter is finally here, and we couldn't be more thrilled! The story of her birth is forthcoming, but I thought it'd be fun to share a bit about how we came up with her name, especially since it's not a conventional one. Plus, it's a slightly lengthy story, so sharing it in a blog post made the most sense since a lot of you have been asking about it!
First of all, we were originally going to keep the name as two separate ones so that she'd be called Emma Lin (this was actually something we came up with months before I was pregnant). Emma was Peter's great-grandmother's name, and we both happened to really like it, but we didn't want the name to stand alone because we wanted something a little more unique. Lin is my mother's name, and I wanted to honor her by including her name in my daughter's. A few months after we found out I was pregnant with a girl, we revisited the name and realized it'd be a lot easier for her in life if she only had one first name (especially since she has a middle name too). We actually started imagining the nightmare she would endure every time she had to fill out a form, especially those pesky ones with the boxes that show favoritism towards people with short names! We eventually settled on Emalyn as a creative way of combining the two separate names.
If you Google the name "Emalyn," you'll find that it means "peaceful home," as a friend of ours pointed out recently. While that's a lovely meaning, the funny thing is that we never looked at what that version of her name means. We had only looked up what the two separate names mean and what they could mean when you combine them. "Emma" means "whole" or "universal" and "Lynn" (which "Lin" is a variation of) means "lake" or "pond." At Peter's suggestion, we decided her name would mean "whole lake." His reasoning for it comes from a conversation he once had with a Navigators mentor back when he was in college. The original conversation was focused on romantic relationships. In relationships, we can look at people as bodies of water. We can choose to swim around the surface of the water or the surface of the other person and think we've learned all there is to know about them. We then get bored and consider whether or not we should begin using our time to explore a different body of water or a different person. However, in a committed relationship, we should go beyond just the surface level of a person. We should make the effort to dive deep and explore the depths of that person instead of just assuming we've seen all there is to see and move on.
How does this relate to life more generally speaking? In life, you can choose to stay in the shallow end of the lake, to focus only on what can be easily seen or attained and remain within your comfort zone and find contentment there. That type of life isn't bad, but it's possible you will never be satisfied (anyone else hear Hamilton in your head when you read that phrase or is it just me?). Instead, you can also choose to take a chance and go into deeper waters, to explore the lake in its entirety and uncover more than just what is available in the shallow end. When you do that, you can experience true joy because you've chosen to dive into the unknown and explore all that the lake has to offer.
We want Emalyn to experience true joy in life, and her name is the perfect starting point for the life we want her to lead. Our hearts are bursting with love for her, and we can't wait to see where her life takes her.
I also just wanted to take a moment to thank those of you who have showered us with love these past few weeks, whether it was via a text, a cooked meal, or a baby gift. We appreciate each and every one of you, and we're so thankful that we have such a supportive community surrounding our growing family.
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