Politics and the Name

Here it is:

Lily-Beth Mei-Lin Johns

We did actually decide a while ago, but the effort of deciding took a lot out of me, and I didn't really publicise it.

Lily was Sue's and the boys' choice. Libby was mine. Elizabeth was always out of the question. Lily Beth felt nice. I think there will be a lot of Lilys around, but I don't think there'll be many Lily-Beths. Also I have been feeling a bit Country this autumn, and Lily-Beth could easily have been a Walton or an Ingles or a song.

Mei Lin means Beautiful Lotus. If our surname were Liszt we might have had to think differently, but I reckon we're OK.

The last two babies have been named by Sue, and Sammy was re-named by Sue. The name Tinsel was a spoiling manouevre aimed at giving her a name that I had chosen that would then have to be changed, and I might get a say in the change. Yes, it's complicated, but that's politics and strategy: complicated. Anyway, it was too complicated for me, and she ended up Lily. At least I got the Beth tagged on, so it worked really.

And I'm hoping to keep the hyphen. That will mean that all her teachers will call her Lily-Beth. (They always use the name from the register. It doesn't matter what the child is really called. It's in the Rules. Ask anyone.) So I'm playing the long game.

Well, I was until Sue reads this.