How Nora Jane Got Her Name

For the past few years, Billy and I have been tossing around baby names and have a few narrowed down... for boys.  When we found out we were having a girl, we had no idea where to start, but we did have a set of requirements.  We've both spent our entire lives clarifying our names ("Elizabeth?" "Here, but it's Liz"), so we have always wanted to give our kids names that did not lend themselves to nicknames.  We also have common names, so we want our children to have names that are fairly uncommon without being too obscure.  We felt like our daughter would be kind, thoughtful, and probably a little nerdy but with plenty of spunk, so we had to find a name that seemed like it would fit those characteristics.  Obviously, the name had to sound good with our last name, and there were plenty of names we couldn't consider because we had bad associations with them (especially since I taught high school for several years).  I also had a few other less important preferences: I thought it would be cool to give the baby a name with a good literary heritage, and I was hoping there would be a nice song featuring the name.

So we developed a system for considering first names.  We would search for and think about names we each liked, and when we found one, we'd propose it to one another.  If one of us suggested a name the other also liked, we'd "put it on the list."  Once there were around five names on "the list," we actually wrote the list down and Billy and I ranked the names separately.  If any name ranked too low between the two of us, we'd take it off the list, and if we found new names we liked, we'd add them.  (I hope people are laughing to themselves after reading this description.  I'm pretty sure most people do not develop an analytic formula for baby naming, but it is definitely the kind of thing we would do.)  Sometime in May, I suggested "Nora" and was excited when Billy told me to add it to the list, but we hadn't yet re-ranked the names, so I wasn't sure where it stood with him.

Nora was my personal favorite when I went to California for Dad's Lompoc memorial.  While I was there I stayed in Mimi and Papa's middle bedroom, and Mimi told me that a woman in one of the photos was a relative of ours from a few generations ago named Nora.  This caught my attention because I didn't know we had any Noras in the family.  The next day, when Billy and I were talking on the phone, he said "You know, my mom mentioned the name Nora, and I was thinking I really do like that name the best so far."  So I said "That's funny, because my grandmother showed me a picture of a family member named Nora yesterday, and I thought the same thing."  So we decided that Nora would be our preliminary frontrunner.  The last time I'd been in Lompoc by myself, Billy and I had decided independently of one another that it was time to get married.  I came home from the time apart and told him we should get my ring finger sized, and he responded by laughing because he had already purchased my ring while I was away.  Clearly, decisions we make after considering them separately while I am in Lompoc turn out to be good decisions. : )

So after Nora became the frontrunner, I discovered a whole series of reasons I liked the name:
Nora is well outside the top 100 names for the past few years, and its even less common in our part of the country.
Nora in Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" is a woman ahead of her time.  When she realizes that her husband treats her like an object (a doll, specifically), she leaves the marriage, claiming she needs to figure out who she is and what she should do with her life.  I don't want my daughter to feel like she has to live an unsatisfying life in order to accommodate societal norms, either.
Nora Barnacle was James Joyce's life partner, muse, and eventually his wife.  My favorite story about them is that he once wrote "I think I would know Nora's fart anywhere.  I think I could pick hers out in a roomful of farting women."  It reminds me that the longer I am married, the more I realize that the true nature of intimacy is rarely captured in cliche phrases but can sometimes be expressed in the most bizarre ways.
Nick and Nora Charles are a married crime fighting duo in the "The Thin Man" film series.  I don't know these movies well, but I understand that they have a dynamic partnership and Nora is a bit of a firecracker.  Plus, my grandfather loves these movies.
One of the baby naming websites claims that Nora might come from the Arabic word "noor" which means light.  Billy and I both liked this idea, since her conception and impending arrival was a light for us, and especially for my family, during the very dark time following my dad's death.  (Incidentally, it doesn't matter to me that I don't believe this is where the name comes from-- I think it's mostly a disambiguation of Eleanor or Honora.)

So after Nora held frontrunner status for a few weeks, Billy and I were looking at wood letters at Michael's craft store when Billy said "Let's get the letters for Nora's name."  "Does that mean we are officially deciding on Nora?" I asked, and he said yes.  It just seemed like the right choice.

Deciding on a middle name felt much more difficult.  We ruled out names that started with vowels because we didn't want her initials to read NOD, NAD, or NED.  We searched high and low for names we liked that sounded good with Nora and found that we liked single syllable middle names best.  We decided there are two very notable times that a child's full name are used: when she is in trouble and when her name is announced at graduations.  We practiced saying the name pairings we liked in the tones of voice used on each of these occasions.  I had originally suggested Jane because it sounds like the female version of James, which is the middle name that is shared by my brother, my dad, and my grandfather.  I also liked that this would make her initials NJ, which are my brother's initials, since Nora would be the first child of her generation in our families just like he is.  We weren't sure, though.  I think it was one night while watching Louis C.K.'s tv show, which features a plucky young daughter character named Jane, that I said "Billy, I really think I just like Nora Jane the most" and he agreed that it was the best combination we had come up with.  We felt so relieved to have chosen a middle name that we decided, once and for all, that Nora Jane would be her name.

After we announced her name, people began asking us if we were going to call her "Nora Jane" or just "Nora."  For me, that felt like proof that the names we'd chosen sounded right together.  And though there may not be a love song about a sparkplug named Nora, I can still sing our little one to sleep by changing the lyrics of the James Taylor song to "Rockabye, sweet Nora Jane."

And now that I've finally gotten her to sleep for the third time tonight, and finished this blog post I've been piecing together for three days, I can get a bit more rest before her doctor's visit.  : )

Update:  My grandmother informs me that the Nora in the photo in her middle bedroom is her father's mother-- or, in other words, our baby Nora's Great Great Great Grandmother.  : )