kate b.
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Thanks so much for the feedback re: Samara! I appreciate all the positive responses but am also grateful for the poster who commented that Ring 3 will be coming out relatively soon... definitely good to know. Rhodolady--yes! My MIL is a botanist and also filled me in on the horticultural connection. I love that! We're still undecided, but baby is not due until August so we have some time. Thanks again!
This subject has been on my mind as we are trying to come up with a name for our second daughter and have been contemplating Samara. We like the name because my 2-year-old, for some reason, is stuck on naming the baby "Sam" but we do not love the name Samantha. Samara is also very close to the name of my father's hometown and we like the actual meaning of the name. HOWEVER, a quick Google search reveals that many associate Samara with the scary girl from The Ring. I know the movie isn't necessarily one everyone will have seen, but I can't help but be disturbed that the association is there (and a Google image search of the name is quite alarming!). (I feel like the name is uncommon enough to encourage Googling amongst current and future friends and acquaintences). What do you all think? Also, does Samara bring about a connection to the Biblical Samaritan woman (another association we'd like to avoid)?
Thanks, everyone, for all the support re: going by Kate instead of Katrina. I have also always thought that since Katrina is a version of Katherine, Kate was fair game as a nickname. I should probably add that not EVERYONE wasn't supportive of my choice (my husband was a champ), but I really was taken aback by JUST how many expressed surprise/disapproval, despite the fact that I try to make it clear that I don't expect old friends to make the change if they don't want to. Anyway, I appreciate you all! I am MUCH more comfortable going by Kate and am really glad I took the plunge.
My name is Katrina and I have always hated it. As Laura pointed out in her book (at least in the first edition), there is something a bit "cheerleader-y" about the name that didn't sit well with me. It was finally growing on me when Hurricane Katrina hit. Before the hurricane, my name was fairly obscure, but afterwards it felt like I was always hearing my name and only in the context of tragedy. When I got married and moved to a new town, I finally did what I had wanted to do for years and started introducing myself as Kate. Although it took a few months of adjustment, I have never regretted making the choice. It has, however, been awkward with old friends and family who refuse to call me Kate or at least give me a hard time for my decision. I was always pretty confident that Kate is a legitimate (not made-up) nickname for Katrina, but it seems like many don't agree. It actually hurt my feelings for a while because I'd get comments from, say, friends named Mary who'd say, "You go by KATE now? I guess that means I can go by Diane." What do you all think? Was Kate too much of a departure from Katrina? Also, shouldn't it be my choice what to go by, anyway?
I am Asian (mixed race) and my husband is Anglo. I never thought I'd have a problem taking my husband's name, but when I actually got married, it was a very difficult decision. Since my first name is quite Western, I felt like having a German last name not only changed my identity, but also robbed me of my cultural heritage. (Imagine an Asian "Heidi Muller"--not my name, but similar). I thought about hyphenating or keeping my maiden name, but in the end decided that I wanted to have a family "unit" name. If we ever needed to be sorted by our last name, I didn't want to be separated from my husband. (We did not consider my husband taking my name for similar reasons of identity, but mostly because his parents are quite conservative. I believe they would have been hurt if I had chosen not to take their name. It was just not a battle we wanted to fight.) We, furthermore, did not feel like hyphenating is necessarily a sustainable cultural practice. What will our daughter do when she gets married? Add a third name? Drop one name so she can take another--if so, which name? We also did not want to combine our names or take a new name entirely because both of us like the idea of being connected to previous generations and like the idea of having a genealogy that can be traced. So I kept my maiden name as a second middle name (my mother's maiden name is my first middle name. I think I was supposed to drop it when I kept my own maiden name but it is a name I really love) and took my husband's surname. When I write my name, I include my maiden name with my surname--just not hyphenated, so when names are sorted surname first, I am LN, FN maiden name (For example: Muller, Heidi Lin). We decided to give my daughter my maiden name as her second middle name, as per my mother's culture. We opted not to give her a Chinese or Filipino first name as Chinese names are not as easy to use in the West and Filipino names are mostly cultural hybrids. We named her a very simple name that we consider quite international and will just give her an additional Chinese name should she end up wanting one. She has my husband's surname as will the rest of our family. (We also opted to give her my mom's maiden name as her first middle name, so essentially she shares both middle names with me. My husband and I liked the fact that we chose her first name together because it is a name we love, and the rest of her names pay tribute to both of us as individuals as well as our families.)
Someone posted early on about sibling sets. Someone had a Mia, Anna, and Elise, I believe. Funny because we have an Anna and are considering Amelia for our second (could be nn Mia) and also like Elise! Once again, a reminder that I am not really that creative. :) I like Eliza, too. And Rosemary.
I know two Linneas and both pronounce their name li-NAY-uh. I know a Lieneke (pronounced LIN-nuh-kuh) from the Netherlands. She is sweet and beautiful and has really endeared me to her name. Perhaps it would be a good option with a more accessible spelling? Linneka?
My mom just told me that I would've been a Lawrence if I were a boy. That definitely does not seem very "me!" We actually named our daughter after what my husband would have been named had he been a girl (Anna)--a sort of roundabout way to name our daughter after him. So his "alternate reality identity" name was used a generation later! (As weird as it sounds, I can see Anna working well for a female version of my husband, too.)