What's in a name? A complicated story

In addition to L.'s pigs, she also has had two lambs to name this spring. It's been an interesting time to bear witness to L.'s biggest challenge in life - making a decision.

Now I have to admit that I can find making decisions a challenge at times. When naming my children my husband and I debated (somewhat heatedly) for months before settling on names for each of our girls. When all was said and done, not only did the girls end up with namesake first names because that was easier to find common ground than trying to find a non-family name we could agree upon, they each ended up with two middle names as well (one has both her grandmother's names, the other has both her great-grandmother's names). I justify this mouthful of names being in the spirit of maintaining their Latin heritage.

But then there are the nicknames, of which each of my kids has one.

So I really should not wonder why my child has such a hard time settling on a single name for her animals each spring. I have not set the best example for her in that department.

But she does have some basic criteria when choosing an animal name.

1.) She has to come up with it on her own. Suggestions are not (generally) welcome.
2.) It has to "mean something."

And although I'm not sure she's actually aware of this last item, I have noticed (as well as some close friends and family members) it seems to be part of the decision making process...

3.) It has to be a name that requires explanation.

Last year's pigs, Pulchra and Titus, were named after characters from the Roman Mysteries book series.

Then came the chance to name her first lamb, Midnight Minette, whose moniker was chosen for yet another book series (this one about horses, although I can't remember which one as she has read so many in this genre).

So when this year's pigs arrived, it was harder for L. to come up with more names, hence the Facebook voting before she settled on Petunia and Groovy Smoothie.

Now there is only one animal left without a name, L.'s second lamb. For the past few weeks the little ewe has been known as "317" (her ear tag number).

On Monday L. finally settled on a name.

"Symphony"

Now you might think this is because L. plays the clarinet in the school band - and you would be partly correct. There is however more to it than that (refer to #3 in the naming selection criteria).

Symphony is dark chocolate brown with a couple of lighter patches of brown on her back and neck (which has been very handy when trying to pick her out of the flock of Romney lambs). This coloring prompted L. to think the lighter spots looked like the toffee chips in her favorite chocolate candy, Hershey's Symphony Bar.

So because this name had multiple meanings to her, she decided it was the perfect one.

There are many things I love about L. but the one that's at the forefront of my mind right now is that she is a great, blogger's daughter.


Oh and in case you were wondering, Symphony was introduced to the halter on Monday and didn't like it any better than Minette did initially.

Symphony did a lot of throwing herself on the ground too.

Minette is still vocal about the halter (lots of loud baaahhhs and maaahhs) but walks much better with it now. I wonder what she was thinking when she gazed down at Symphony while she was at the height of her anger and defiance with the halter.

Care to caption the photo?