The One and Only Norah Lu
When Moonshot and I agreed on the name Norah for our daughter, one of the things we liked about it was that it was not common…but not strange. It harkens back to two grandmothers named Norma (one on my side and one on Moonshot’s) and also to my Great Aunt Eleanor. It seemed perfect.
For a middle name, Moonshot liked Louise for no reason other than it sounded nice and would allow her to call the little one Norah Lou. I suggested a small change to Norah Lucille since that was my grandmother’s name and Moonshot agreed. It was perfect. My Grandma went by Lu, so shortening the name to Norah Lu in common speech was actually even more of a tribute. Later it became even better because Lu could also stand for Lutine…my webby nickname for my daughter that worked perfectly with the Gren aspect of my own nickname. Simply glorious all around.
But I discovered something last week. It turns out we accidentally stumbled upon a rather unique name. Seems it’s surprisingly rare to shorten a middle name to “Lu.” Everyone wants “Lou.” Do a quick Google search for Norah Lu and you’ll find nothing but references to this site in the top hits. Eventually you’ll find someone with the last name of Lu…but that’s different.
I had no idea. But neither do I regret it. Perhaps my Grandma was odd in her choice of diminutives, but it always seemed perfectly normal to me. And if it’s true that we’ve granted a one-of-a-kind name for our daughter…perhaps that’s a fitting gift from Grandma Lu since Norah Lu, like her namesake, is a one-of-a-kind girl.
8 comments:
I had to try it.
The very first hit I got was for www.nora.lu. Some hot, blonde singer chick. Check her out!
But then the next couple hits were for your little lutine.
I think you may be putting an inordinate amount of pressure on your daughter though. Giving her a one-of-a-kind name to match that same unparalleled status you've applied could end up giving her a superhero syndrome. But it could be handy to have a superhero as a daughter, eh?
Your name choices ran along the same vein as mine and my wife's when we were picking them out for our boys. Not common... but not strange was exactly what we were going for.
Unique names rule. She will love it.
The cool way it fits other things just means it was the right one.
We wanted something not weird but not common, too. Benjamin seemed to fit nicely. Plus, it's Hebrew, so with his red hair and freckles it fits perfectly. 8-?
That singer is kind of hot, Simon. Wonder if she's talented?
Actress, not singer (hence the crazy faces theme). More theater than movies, it seems. Name doesn't have an 'h', though, but Google picks it up anyway.
That's a nice name story, Moksha. I had been wondering why you kept using another last name for Norah, but I had forgotten English people have middle names. Middle names are cool, and Norah's is the coolest. Plus, if you use the initial, she's Norah el Gren. (Norah the imp, in international tongue.)
After seeing your comment on my blog today (8-17), I'm thinking this week must be "come onto your buddy's wife" week (see my comment on The Reverend Moksha Gren post for reference).
So, I'm all for it.
Let's see, to be inclusive, Simon, what is Amy wearing?
Simon - Yeah...you also find Nora Koenig since her upper domain in .lu But that hardly counts. She's attractive and well worth finding perhaps, but she doesn't really change my thought.
Maybe I'm taking pressure away from little Norah. Most of us strive our whole lives trying to differentiate ourselves form the masses, to prove that we're special in some way. She's got that out of the way already.
Now, a superhero daughter could be quite nice. Especially if she didn’t share the qualities the Crash Test Dummies extol. Quite profitable, in deed.
Mark - It's interesting how three different fathers each would describe their kid's names as "not common, not strange" but I think we actually range a bit on how uncommon we chose. Ben is not hugely common, but more so, I think than Norah or Tavish. Norah, slightly more rare, but not so much as Declan (at least in these parts.) But each of us found our own comfort zone and staked it out while using the exact same criteria. Just interesting, me thinks.
Emilie - Language is an amazing thing. If I just keep pretending the word "gren" actually means imp-like creature...eventually, it might. Thanks for playing along with a Moksha-friendly translation.
And yes, the "h" in Norah is a constant source of confusion. It's constantly missed. We even received a beautiful cross-stitched birth plaque from an Aunt that had "Nora." It was promptly fixed…but it highlighted the life-long battle our little girl is going to have in that field. My cousin Sarah confirms that.
Mark (again) - I'm on board. The fact is that we're three pretty geeky guys who lucked our way into marriage to three hot wives. It makes sense, strategically, for us to band together and reinforce this fluke occurrence. And since Amy has her own blog...we could just zip over there and start flirting. Or maybe we should wait til Simon's back in town so we don't look to opportunistic ;)
Google spits out two elf-type character sketches first when you slip 'gren' into the image search engine. Same character, actually, Gren being her name. Here's a pic of it, there's a whole series.
I had 'spelling safe' as a criteria when looking for a baby name, and thought Xavier was pretty safe, but we've quickly been proven wrong, getting everything from Eczavier to Davy (wtf?). I have no such disillusions for my next name search : anything can be mispelled, I'm ditching the possible mispellings/word play criteria.
I love unique names...my daughter is named Sadie. It is a nickname for Sarah. Did you know that? Anyhow...the other name that we were going to name her possibly? Louise. Not kidding. I love that name and it is a family name of ours as well.
BTW, I meant to comment yesterday. I love that you were able to be such a special part in your friends wedding. What an honor and I loved your sermon. Nice job Pastor Gren! Can I call you that now?
:) Have a great weekend!
You guys should totally head over there and start flirting with her. She's pretty well armed herself, so I don't think you really COULD do anything to catch her off guard. Not that I'm inviting you to try, mind you...
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