On the topic of names (the female version)

Much to my chagrin, Marilu decided against learning the sex of the baby during the ultrasound. I found this idea preposterous since I assumed everyone found that out early on, but it's actually not that uncommon up here. Since I'm not the one carrying the baby around for nine months, my opinion is decidedly less important, so we aren't going to know whether it's a boy or a girl until the moment it pops out.

As a result, we've had to come up with both a boy name and a girl name. The latter was easy; the former, eh, not so much.

The Girl Name
Several years ago, probably the mid-1990s, I was listening to a CD by the heavy metal band Slayer (some might even call them death or speed metal). At some point, I was flipping through the CD insert, and I noticed the names of the band members. The lead singer's name was Tom Araya, and it immediately occurred to me that Araya was a really cool name. I've always been fond of 'A' names for girls, and that one fit the bill. Of course, I was years away from getting married, let alone having a kid, so it was just something I filed away in the bank of my head.

Well, fast forward several years, and Marilu goes and gets herself pregnant (I may have had something to do with it). I'd already mentioned the name Araya in the past, and while she wasn't totally against it, I knew it wasn't her first choice. Her biggest worry, as a math teacher, was that people would pronounce it like the word "area".

After a bit of discussion, we finally thought, "What about dropping the first letter?" And thus, Raya, our choice for a female name, was born. Ever since we decided it, we've never looked back and neither of us have any regrets. In case you're wondering, the pronounciation will be RAY-uh, not RYE-uh. I could see some people getting it mixed up with Maya, but I think it's unique enough that people should be able to figure it out on their own.

Interestingly enough, only a few weeks after we decided on the name, we were watching the show Smallville, and young Clark Kent meets up with a Kryptonian named Raya (pronounced the Maya way). I thought that was kind of nifty.

Anyway, our goal was to pick something that was mostly unique but not completely off the wall (Apple, anyone?), and I think we succeeded. Tomorrow, I'll talk about the less decisive journey the boy's name has made.