Sophia

When we found out we were having a girl we struggled to pick a name. My criteria was pretty demanding. I wanted a name that:

* was not too common (I checked the census records and was chagrined to find Emma so popular for several years in a row) or too unusual (although I do like Willow)

* did not have an automatic nickname (I like Matilda but was afraid people would call her Matty and she'd be lumped with all the Maddy's short for Madison)

* did not end in a long e sound since it would rhyme with our last name (which ruled out Lilly, one of my favorites ... and I didn't like Lillian nearly as much)

* her daddy agreed upon (isn't that nice of me?)

Amelia was put out there fairly early and, obviously, that's the name we chose, albeit pretty late in the pregnancy. Never having known an Amelia, it was a little hard to really "own" the name for my daughter before she was born and we would occasionally entertain other name ideas. While walking I would often hear the name Sophia float through my head. I wondered if it was my baby girl telling me that should be her name. That may sound a little strange but when I was little I used to wish my name was Elizabeth. (I had dreams of becoming Queen Elizabeth III. My father straightened me out on that one.)

I never brought Sophia up as an option because I couldn't get the image of Sophia from "the Golden Girls" out of my head. This week when the media informed us that Sophia now replaced Emma as the number one name for baby girl, *phew!* was my first thought. I told Amelia's daddy about it and he said, "Eww, Sophia, I never would have agreed to it anyway." Well, now I can stop worrying about whether I should have ever said anything about it after getting home from those long walks!