If the baby would have been a boy, we planned to name him Luca Dominic. I've known Luka was Mate's favorite boy name since we were first dating, but wasn't ever a big fan. I pretty much vetoed it from the start. He never pushed me to reconsider, so it came as a surprise to him when I decided that I actually did like the name. My only stipulation was that I wanted the name spelled with a "c" instead of a "k". It's safe to say settling on a boys name was the easy part.
For as long as we've been together, Mate knew that my absolute favorite girls name is Cecily. If anyone is familiar with the Avonlea television series based on Anne of Green Gables, that's where the name comes from. I was probably in elementary school when the series was on the Disney channel and have loved the name ever since. When we started dating, Mate was well aware that I wanted a little girl named Cecily. He totally went along with it for years. Then, around the time we got married, he admitted that he didn't like the name because he thought it was made up. I did everything I could to prove it was a real name, including looking up the origin and meaning online. That didn't help at all because the name means blind. Mate wasn't budging and I wasn't about to force him to name a child something he didn't like. I wish he would have just told me from the start so I wouldn't have fantasized about how cute the name Cecily Soric is for years and years, but I got over it. Anyway, we came up with this list of girls names that we could agree on:
Ella
Liliana
Adriana
Marina
Eliana
Ella was the first to get knocked off the list because we thought Mia, Ava, and Ella all together was a little overkill with the two syllable name, ending in an "a" thing.
Adriana was the next to go. The way it is pronounced in Croatian is the way we would have wanted her name, but there was no way to spell it in English that would have looked and sounded right.
Marina is from a Croatian song Mate loves, but I was just never able to think of the name without thinking of a boat marina, so there went that option.
Liliana was at the top of my list, but Mate thought it was a mouth full (yes, we realize it has the same amount of syllables as the name we chose). We also already know a few Lilys so we were hesitant to choose Liliana.
Over the summer, I read book after book by Adrianna Trigianni. One of her characters was a little Italian girl named Eliana. That pretty much sealed the deal for me. I liked the idea of the baby's name coming from a book because Mate and I met in English Class. I had attmepted to come up with a list of possible names from all the novels we read our Sophomore year, but couldn't find one we liked, which was disappointing. Luckily, I found Eliana and Mate liked it, too. As far as her middle name is concerned, Mate was always open to using Cecily as a middle name. I tried to come up with something else just in case he changed his mind. In the end, he promised it was fine with him and we decided on Eliana Cecily Soric.
We think the name suits her well and are happy with our decision. I must say, choosing a name for your child can be quite a bit of work!
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