Great Baby Naming Stories: Beatrix Ivaloo and a girl named Peregrine
by Linda Rosenkrantz
What our June Berrybaby announcements lacked in quantity (only one boy!), they made up for in swoon-worthy baby naming stories. Ivaloo! Belphoebe! A girl named Peregrine! Woo!
GIRLS
Beatrix Ivaloo, sister to Matilda Maeve
“Beatrix is pulling double/triple duty, named for my SO’s grandmother (Bette) and great aunt (Beverly) and grandfather (Irvin)….We landed on Beatrix pretty quickly since it hit almost all of the things we wanted in a name; familiar but not popular, three syllables, lots of nickname potential (Bea, Trixie, Bix, Beats), and a lovely meaning (“she who brings happiness” or “blessed voyager”). We think it goes pretty well with Matilda as well (in addition to the above, both names have been used by various royals for centuries). …Ivaloo is inspired by a song of the same name by The Submarines. As described by the band, the song imagines the future of a friend’s young daughter, named after the street on which they all once lived near Boston. My wife walked down the aisle at our wedding to another song by the same band (Swimming Pool)….When we learned that Princess Josephine of Denmark had middle names of both Matilda and Ivalo, it felt pre-ordained.”
“We named our sweet early bird Hazel Esther and have taken to calling her Hazy for short. I loved Hazel from the beginning…the sound, the color imagery, the earthy feel…and luckily my husband came to love it as well. Esther was another first name contender that we love for both the meaning and the biblical connection.” I love this site and can’t wait to be back when it’s time to name our next little love.”
Kate Freya Juliet, sister of Finn and Leo
“Nameberry was a big help when it came to naming her. Being our first (and possibly only) girl, it was very important to me to get her name right. We always knew she would be Kate, but we entertained Katia for a while, and toyed with Elizaveta, Mila, Anya, Olivia, and Claire as middle names before I realized I just kept coming back to Freya and Juliet. Juliet is sweet and lovely to me, a variation of Julie which was my favourite name as a child and teen. So I’m thrilled I was able to give her a name that is so meaningful.”
Morgana Belphoebe Rue, sister of Cornelia Hermione Winter and Endymion Atlas Faramir
“Morgana is, of course, after Morgana le Fay, King Arthur’s witch sister and my ultimate feminist icon. We wanted our daughter to have a beautiful, magical name as well as a great namesake, and Morgana offers the best of both worlds. We considered tons of names, but deep inside I always knew that one day I will have a daughter called Morgana. We have been trying out different nicknames: Maggie, Annie, Mamie, Mo, but my mother suggested Margot the other day and it looks like this one might stick. Belphoebe is yet another Arthurian fairy name, the maiden huntress in Edmund Spencer’s The Faerie Queene. With Phoebe being an epithet for Artemis, Belphoebe is a nod to one of my favorite Greek goddesses as well as the delightful Phoebe Buffay and Holden Caulfield’s lovely little sister in The Catcher in the Rye. And Rue honors Hamlet, my favorite play ever: “there’s rue for you; and here’s some for me/we may call it herb-grace o’ Sundays.” In my home country of Ukraine, rue symbolizes purity and mercy, and when we learned that during the Middle Ages it was a symbol of recognition between witches, we just knew Rue had to be one of our daughter’s middle names!”
“It was very stressful to choose, since we only want one but we love names! At the end, it was between Peregrine and Andromeda, but when testing them both out, Peregrine was the one that felt “right” to both of us. Both of our top choices were long, but our surname is very short, so it feels balanced instead of unwieldy. Peregrine is traditionally masculine (as is my mother’s name, my aunt’s name, and my grandmother’s name), but it’s uncommon enough in the US that no one has questioned its use for our daughter. We have been trying out different nicknames—Pippin, Pippa, Perry, Prin, Rin—but will let her choose what suits her when she’s older. We love the name for its actually meaning (traveler or pilgrim), though I don’t mind the falcon association as I’m something of a bird lover. Thalia was one of our runners-up, a nod to my husband’s Greek heritage and my mythology interests. Alongside Peregrine, we like the idea of one who inspires joy wherever she travels. The second middle name, Morgan, is also mythological but also honors our shared Welsh ancestry as well as a late family member.”
BOY(S)
Jasper Phillip, brother of Ira Albert.
“We continued our tradition of choosing a first name for its personal meaning to us, and a middle name to honour beloved family members.”
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What’s your favorite of this month’s names, first and middle combos, and sibsets?