Timeless Bonds: A Rose By Any Other Name

This story is a “killing two birds with one stone” story. It is in response to two StoryWorth questions. The first is; How did your parents pick your name? The second is somewhat related; How did you choose your children’s names?

I have asked my parents why they gave me my name. I think that Dad let Mom do most of the picking.
The name April might be nice for a baby girl born in April but I was born in February. Thankfully, I wasn’t named February as I may have had trouble learning to spell it since that first ‘R” is silent to me! Also, I would have likely gone through life being called Febbie!
Mom tells me that she liked the name April. Nowadays, I see Aprils all over the place but back in 1960, there weren’t that many of us out there. So, I suppose that Mom may have liked that it was a bit unusual.
I think that the main reason she named me April was that so many of her loved ones had been born in April. Mom was born in April. Her mother was born in April. Her sisters Lola and Fanny were born in April. Her brother Billy was born in April. So, Grandma Rachel and her first four children were all born in April. April was a time when wonderful folks were born and when nature was awakening with a show of beauty.

My middle name is Darlene and Mom has told me that she just thought that April Darlene had a nice ring to it. Maybe she foresaw that I would be such a darling and Darlene and darling sounds very similar!
Because his sisters were all born in April, Uncle Olen calls his sisters and me on April 1st to wish us all a happy birthday. Each time, I remind him that I was born in February but he says that isn’t possible because I was named April and who would name a girl April if she was born in February? LOL! I pray that I will be wished a happy birthday every April 1st for all of my life!
I do know that Spring is my very favorite season of the year. It is filled with such surprise, such potential, and is such a time of hope! April is one of the “Springiest” months of spring so I am happy to be named April! Maybe Mom foresaw my love of Spring too!
Now, I want to tell how my children got their names. When I was pregnant with Roxanna, I looked for names that were derived from Persian names. My husband is from Iran and I wanted that part of our children’s heritage to be honored somehow.
I came across the name Roxanna and asked Mohammad what he thought of it. He loved it as his mother’s name was Rokhsareh. He said that Roxanna is a form of Rokhsareh and naturally he loved it. Roxanna has a few syllables so I thought her middle name should be short. I like the name Leigh. I have always liked Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Roxanna Leigh rolls similarly off of the tongue so Roxanna Leigh Hajjafar was named.

Rokhsareh and her namesake Roxanna

Now, when I was pregnant with Alexandria, I again looked for a name of Persian derivative. I mentioned the ones that I found to Mohammad and he didn’t really like them. I even mentioned the name Jasmine and he didn’t care for it. So, since I have always loved books and there had been an ancient and great library in Alexandria, Egypt, I thought that Alexandria would be a beautiful name honoring books and knowledge. I then looked for a Persian middle name. I found the name Sheva from the Persian word ‘She-vah-ee” which means well-spoken. Alexandria Sheva is a mouthful but it seems appropriate that a person named after a library full of books would be well-spoken! Alexandria Sheva Hajjafar was named.

The great library at Alexandria

Now, when Alexandria was several months old, Mohammad told me that his friend’s wife had had a baby and they had named her Jasmine . He said that he liked that name and in all seriousness asked if we could change Alexandria’s name! My jaw dropped and I reminded him that when I had suggested Jasmine before Alex was born, he had not liked it. I told him that Alexandria was going to remain Alexandria. The time for naming a baby does not come months after her birth and after months of being called Alexandria.
Mohammad then said that his brother had told him that Alexandria was a name honoring Alexander the Great. Now, Alexander the Great had conquered Persia and naming the daughter of a Persian Alexandria didn’t seem like a good thing to him. I told him that Alexandria was named after an ancient and famous library in Alexandria Egypt and NOT after Alexander the Great! Of course, I suppose that the library had been named to honor Alexander, but Alexandria was named after the library and not Alexander. He should have voiced his concerns before we named her. I still love her name no matter who Alexander the Great conquered!
We went through a similar process when I was pregnant with Cameron. I tried to find a name of Persian derivative that I liked. The Persian name Kamran/Kamuran/Kamron sounded very similar to the name Cameron which I very much liked. In Persian, the name means prosperous and that sounds like a good wish for a child so we chose Cameron.
Now, Mohammad loves old movies and especially old westerns. He loved the movie Shane and asked if we could make Shane Cameron’s middle name. I thought that Cameron Shane was a beautiful name and so our son became Cameron Shane.

I have to say that I have always been happy with the names that we gave to our children. I have heard Roxanna mention that she doesn’t like the name Leigh, but otherwise I have heard no serious complaints from them. I suppose that that means that we did okay in choosing their names.
All I know is that we have three beautiful, wonderful, and empathetic children; and I am certain that by any other names, these roses would smell as sweet!