Thursday, March 1, 2012

Finally settled on a name!

So we finally decided that we are going to name our new daughter... Kiki!
As some of you may know, we had originally thought that we were going to name her Bunny(i). Victor and I both loved the name, and Coco sounded so cute when she said it. We had lots of bunnies running around our yard in Rye and Coco used to love to scream "Bunny!" whenever she saw them. Nene loved to take off chasing them too...much to our dismay.
Coco got very accustomed to referring to her sister as Bunny(i). Around 25 weeks, Victor brought Coco with him to Kira's doctor appointment and she got to listen to her sister's heartbeat. She clearly understood that her sister was inside of Kira. We would ask her, "Coco, what is your sister's name?" and she would say "Bunny!" Then we would ask her, " Where is Bunny(i)??" She would say, "Kira's Tummy!" One day, we heard her screech from the backseat of the car, "I want Bunny(i)!" She clearly can not wait to meet her new sister.
The reaction to our choice of names was a bit more dramatic than we had expected. At least five people (some extremely close friends and others that we did not know that well) exclaimed when we mentioned our proposed name, "OH PLEASE DON'T DO THAT!" Others thought it was kind of cute and charming. The main concern seemed to be that she would not be taken seriously with a name like Bunny. We do want to make it clear, however, that the decision to change her name was purely our choice and we are not succumbing to social pressure!! :)
Victor and I were having a difficult time agreeing on the spelling of the name. I wanted to spell it Bunny, Victor was really stuck on Bunni. It looked as though we were going to settle on Bunnie.
One morning last week, the three of us were sitting in our den in LA. I was reading a book to Coco that was illustrated by a woman named Kiki. I realized immediately that I loved the name. I said to Victor, "What do you think of the name Kiki??" Victor loved it and clearly Coco did too. We asked Coco if she liked the name Bunny(i) or Kiki for her sister, she said wildly, "Kiki! Kiki! Kiki!" And so it was settled.
Coco, Kiki and Nene...it does have a ring to it....doesn't it??
I am writing this so that one day Kiki will understand the story behind her name, lest we forget. She might get a kick out of understanding that she was almost named Bunny. I guess she can always change it to Bunny if she wants and she can spell it however she would like. My parents told me that if I were a girl, they were going to name me Daisy Marie. Thank goodness for that male chromosome!

3 comments:

Christine DeMaio-Rice said...

You can still call her Bunny. We call our son Stinky -- and that's not what's on the birth certificate.

And you know I'm not displeased, even though my opinion should count for slightly less than nothing in your house. I do think women have enough of a hard time getting taken seriously in positions of power. I think this will work well for you and now you can write a rhythmic song about all the members of your family.

:)))

Alixee said...

Congrats on the name! As for not succumbing to "social pressure?"Don't quite understand that. I appreciate, value my friends input and if they influenced a decision of mine I do not see the problem with it.

Victor and Chris said...

Of course we value your opinion...I meant that as a joke. We certainly took the reaction of our friends into consideration.

If there is one thing that I appreciate after living in California for a few months is people being open and honest and frank. Notice that it was the two fierce NYC ladies who spoke up about the name! lol...