If I hear ONE more person tell me their child, grandchild, niece or whatever's name is Ava I just might have a conniption! Good Lord, I mean just how many unoriginal people are there in this world?!
Every time someone asks what my little girl's name is I brace myself for the, "ooooh funny, my ______ name is Ava, that's a pretty popular name right now huh?!" I struggle to contort my grimace into a smile, and explain following the trend was far from our intent in choosing the name Eva for our daughter.
If any of you don't know why Michael and I chose that name let me fill you in. While living in Boston 12 years ago, Michael was first enchanted by the angelic voice of Eva Marie Cassidy singing, "Married Girl Blues" on the local folk radio station. Although the rough lyrics of this particular tune didn't set well with him on the first listen, Eva's voice struck a chord in him unlike any other vocalist. Over the years Mike built up a collection of her brilliant interpretations and was quick to share them with me not long after we met!
In her sort career Eva never recorded any of her original songs, but rather tackled
the challenge of taking already popular songs and making them her own. She brought a certain passion, depth, and beauty to these often over played songs that made you feel as if they had been her own creations all along and the others were the copy cats, that could never compare to her version. She truly FELT the music and the lyrics and in doing so provided a much more personal insight to her listeners!
My personal favorite of hers is Sting's, "Fields of Gold". I'll never forget the first time I heard Sting's version, it was played at my brother Scott's wedding for the bride and groom's first dance as a couple. I was only 9 at best and the lyrics of this tune already brought to tears to my eyes. I always dreamed that this would also be the song played at my wedding, but at the same time did not want the SAME song as my brother. I wanted, as in everything I do, to be unique, original ... Now in hearing Miss Cassidy's rendition, not only did the tears begin to flow as they had so many years before, but my heart melted and images of a life with Michael began forming in my mind as Eva's tender voice drew out the sweet notes even more softly than a mother kisses her child. Suddenly this song was no longer just a love song, it was OUR song. Our story of love and companionship woven together by the delicate, power of a single woman's voice.
In discovering that I was pregnant Michael and I quickly started discussing names for the child to be. We settled within minutes on a boys name, but continued to throw ideas around for a girls name for the next day or so ... nothing seem to be quite right. Then it hit me, why not Eva?! It just made perfect sense, that we name our daughter after the singer that we both adore! The middle names then were easy ... we wanted family names, and it just so happened both our mother's middle names were Jean. And in honor of Michael's mother Laurie, we added that in to make the forth name ... also important since we both have four names and neither of us had ever met anyone else with such!
Result ... Eva Jean Laurie Sutherland! Flowing, beautiful, and unique ... or so we thought. Then comes along all these baby girl Ava's and everyone we meet thinks we've named our daughter Eva to tag along with the trend. *BARF!* No waaay would I ever intentionally follow a tend. Having something in common with 90% of people you meet is boring ... and the things you have "in common" are so common then they become not so exciting to find that someone else has the same.
So even though Mike still has to calm me down after every time we meet someone with an Ava, I've decided NOT to go to the court house and change her name, but encourage our daughter to also find ways to be unique, and that if anyone ever mistakes her name, to proudly correct them with the knowledge that she was named after an extraordinary woman, unlike all the rest!
To find out more on Eva Cassidy visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Cassidy
No comments:
Post a Comment