We filled out the paperwork to officially name her Uma Davey Gangatirkar. We had various Western names that we liked, but there was something a little... remote about them; we didn't really feel it. Davey, obviously, has a real connection and real significance. You may hear it pronounced "Devi" by Indian people (there's a difference in the D). In at least a couple of Indian languages, "devi" means goddess. So that's nice, too, but I don't want to diminish its significance as Jessica's name.
We spent a lot of time looking at names. We rejected lots of them. Uma won because it has a lot of nice qualities, besides being agreeable to us both:
- It's relatively known, thanks to Uma Thurman, but not at all common.
- It's Indian, so it reflects her real (as opposed to imagined, like with Celtic names) heritage.
- It's short and really, really easy to say, which goes a little way to balance out the Gangatirkar at the end, and should shield her from the trauma I suffered growing up.
- She'll be able to say her own name at an early age because it's short and the sounds are easy for a small child.
- She has an automatic animal mascot in the puma.
On the subject of names, Slate has two interesting excerpts from the new book Freakonomics.
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