Amelia O'Connor Sanderford

I think we have become pretty settled on the Wiggle Baby's new name.

This is from the text of an email I sent to Dean one of the first days I began to really consider the name Amelia:

2. Amelia was number 68 last year, which is more popular than it has been in the past 100 years. So it's not totally uncommon, but not number one or anything. (FYI, Hannah was 17 last year, Ella was 19).

3. My mom likes Amelia. Your mom could call her Mia since Mia is a nickname. :)

4. It seems Amelia means industrious, hardworking, or admiring. That's not that exciting. See http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Amelia.

5. Ameliorate--to make better.

6. Sadly, amelia is also the name of congenital disease in which one is missing a body part.

7. Would other children call her Amelia Bedelia, like the children's book? Would this upset her?




So those were some original thoughts. You might have noticed that the list is missing number one. Number one is where I pondered the life of Amelia Earhart. She wore "bloomers" as a child and was adventurous. She was the first female pilot to fly by herself across the Atlantic. She made a lot of other flight records too. Sadly, she died (or at least disappeared--there were rumors and controversy surrounding her disappearance) toward the end of her attempt to fly around the world. (You can read all of this in more detail in Wikipedia.)

Despite what you'll read below, I wouldn't say we are naming the baby "after" Amelia Earhart. I've never known much about her life or been attached to her as a role model, although I think she is a good one. But something interesting happened while I was reading about her life in regard to the name Amelia.

I never knew how Amelia Earhart died, and I was a little shocked to learn that she died in an airplane crash. As some of you readers know, I am not a fan of airplanes (or, really, any form of travel except the train). I am scared of flying. I do it, but I don't like it. During takeoff, I grip the armrests and sort of hyperventilate and make everyone around me uncomfortable. So I thought, how can I give my baby the same name as someone who died in an airplane crash?

But almost simultaneously, I thought, what a gift, to give the baby the name of someone who had such a passion for adventure. And someone who safely and successfully did what she loved many, many times. Because if I could change one thing about myself, it would be to be less afraid of change, travel, uncertainty. For a trip or vacation not to be, to quote the poet James McMichael, "the story of my living through it." Furthermore, if there is any kind of strange, crazy trip, it has to be choosing to have and then actually having a child. Amelia began to become a name of strength, possibility, bravery, and joy.

I don't normally put poems on the blog, especially poems that are works-in-progress and that are still sort of overwrought in syntax and tone. But I've been writing this little poem about the name; I think it says in verse what I am trying to say in prose:

Amelia

Whatever I do
you’ll die. I’ll

name you then
not after a poet

or flower fated
to rise from

a single rooted spot
but after an adventurer;

say it aloud, air
heart! Fly, daughter,

brave; long after
I fall asleep at last

let me hear your
laughter fluttering






Fine print: Despite all this, the baby's name is subject to change without notice, up to and possibly several days after her birth.