Your Name, Officially

Today your name became official.  

Sophie Lila Moe-Ricks

Mommy and I poured over names for months.  We looked at list after list after list after list - most popular names, old names, names with particular meanings.  We would come up with a list, whittle it down to four or five names and then start all over again.  In the end?  We had a list of five names and decided to wait until you were born to choose "the one."

Your middle name was picked out long ago.  Once we found out we were pregnant we agreed that if you were a boy your middle name would be Roger, after your Grandpa Moe.  He was such a good man, and I am sorry that you will never know him except through stories and pictures.  

We decided if you were a girl your middle name would be Lila, after your Great Grandma Ricks.  Grandma Ricks passed away when I was a girl, but I still remember time spent with her - she was a special woman who had an impact on me, even at a young age.

After finding out you were a girl, we toyed with using Lila as your first name.  We went back and forth between liking it and not but eventually settled on using it as a middle name.

We had also figured out your last name a long time ago.  After Mommy and I got married, we decided not to change our last names.  She remained Moe and I remained Ricks.  But you, my Sophie girl, get to have a piece of both of us in your last name.

It wasn't long after you were born - probably in the first hour or two - that we picked Sophie from our final short list.  We both agreed it fit.  We filled out the birth certificate paperwork today and just like that, it's official.

As for our names?  We talked about a lot of different words for Mom and finally decided on Mommy and Mama for now - probably switching to both being Mom later...but that's really for you to decide and figure out. :)

PS - Some names that we passed up: Lucy, Olivia, Madison, Alexis, Madeline, and Lyla (Mommy was also strongly rooting for Aquanetta or Sheila :))

PPS - If, in the end, the choice had been mine?  You would have been Lila Blu. :)
PPPS - People are already calling you Sophia instead of Sophie.  Mommy shot down Sophia because she said it reminded her of The Golden Girls.  We'll have to watch that show together some day... :)