This author’s note originally appeared in the January 10th edition of my email newsletter. To sign up for my newsletter, click here.
So right after we got home from the holidays, Mrs. Vasicek had her ultrasound, and we found out that we’re having a baby girl! We are super excited! She looks really healthy so far, so hopefully everything goes well and we get to welcome her into the world this spring.
Right now, we’re in baby name mode, and I have to say it’s a bit different from picking character names. You would think I would have some experience in this area, being a fiction writer and all, but no. My number one name choice is Æthelflæd, but Mrs. Vasicek has soundly vetoed it, which is a shame because it’s such a good namesake: lady of Mercia, daughter of Alfred the Great, and a formidable woman in her own right (yes, I’ve been binge listening to the British History Podcast).
In all seriousness, though, it is really awesome that we’re having a baby girl. I grew up with three sisters, and I’ve often thought that I’d be able to do well raising a daughter. Now we’ll find out!
We’ll probably give our baby a name from our extended family, though that doesn’t actually narrow things down very much. On the Czech side, I’m rather partial to Ludmilla (Lilly), but sadly Mrs. Vasicek has vetoed that one as well. Neither of us are keen on our grandparents’ names, so we’ll probably go back a little further, or save one of those for a middle name.
One thing we probably won’t do is resort to the Utah Baby Name Generator, though it is a real hoot. Tim Urban also has a really fun blog post on baby names up on his blog, Wait But Why. I’m sure if we’re indecisive for long enough, people will start to come out of the woodwork and tell us all sorts of crazy things about names and naming.
What are some girl names that you really like? We’re very much open to suggestions. Who knows? Even if we don’t end up using them, they might show up in my next book.
I suspect that Mrs. Vasicek will be on the fence right up until the month the baby is born, at which point she’ll make a firm choice and won’t be swayed from it. So until then, I guess I just need to maintain a firm grip on the Overton window, though it may have already slipped out of my control.
Æthelflæd…
