How Did You Choose Your Child’s Name? This Is How We Chose Ours.

“How do you spell your name?” That is a question our daughter has had to answer throughout her life. And it is all because of a conversation between me, Barb, and a dear friend. Before I tell you about it, let me tell you why I was thinking about names today.

Barb sent me an amusing article from the NBC Today Show’s website. The post tells the tale of Gabrielle, a young woman who discovered that her name had been registered with the Social Security Administration as “Babrielle.” The mistake was caused by her mom’s loopy handwriting on a hospital form following Gabrielle’s difficult delivery–Mom herself being a bit loopy from medication.

The misspelling was not discovered until Gabrielle applied for her driver’s learner’s permit. And as the article points out, mistakes like that are not rare. Gabrielle’s story was followed with sagas of other people whose names were misregistered on their birth certificates or with government agencies.

But that is not how our daughter ended up with a common name spelled in an uncommon way. Instead, our story goes like this.

When Barb was pregnant in 1984 we had no difficulty conjuring up baby names. We knew if we were having a girl we would name her Lindsay, and if we were having a boy he would be called either Brian or Michael. One moment with our firstborn and we knew we had a Michael on our hands.

But two years later, when an ultrasound told us a daughter was on the way, the trendiness of Lindsay had come and gone. We struggled to find a suitable replacement. Day after day, the nurses caring for a post-C-section Barb asked us for our lovely little girl’s name–and we looked at our feet and said we weren’t sure yet.

The day before Barb’s scheduled discharge, her long-time friend Lysie stopped to visit. Hearing of our predicament, she offered “How about Laury. I think it is spelled L-A-U-R-Y.” Barb liked the name, and remembering a pizzeria on Broadway and Foster which I was sure was spelled Laury’s, I agreed. With the situation resolved, the next day we brought our Laury home.

Sadly, we lost our friend Lysie to breast cancer just a few years later. And the pizzeria (it was actually named Laurie’s, not Laury’s) was the site of a gang killing in 2012 leading to its closing. Those are true tragedies.

But Laury has her unique name and I hope that despite all the questions about the spelling she enjoys her distinctiveness.

Now if only I could only keep auto-correct from changing “Laury” into “Lori” every time I try to type my daughter’s name…

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