Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Names and Numbers

Babycakes and I have always loved the name Iyla and had it in our 'future baby' repertoire for years. I can't remember how we arrived at it, save for it fit BC's request for an alliterative name (starting with or containing the letter "L").

The traditional way of spelling Iyla is "ISLA." We went back and forth a lot about which way to spell her name... and the pros and cons went like this:

ISLA (Scottish- means "an island")
Pros:
*Looks beautiful and feminine
Cons:
*More common
*Might be mispronounced "IS-la"
*Don't love the meaning

IYLA (Indian, Sanskrit for "moonlight")
Pros:
*More phonetic & easier to pronounce
*Sentimental meaning, as she was conceived on a full moon and BC and I have a longstanding joke that I am the sunshine & he is my moonshine

The ironic thing is that so many people are getting her name wrong, despite the spelling we thought would be easiest. We had not anticipated the challenges of computer font... which more times than not makes the capital "I" look like an "L." We keep having people think her name is LY-la. C'est la vie. I do still love the way "Isla" looks, but the meaning & uniqueness of "Iyla" definitely tipped the scales.

Don't you call me Lyla! And why is this sleep sack so huge?

For as long as I can remember, 8 and 12 have always been my 'lucky' numbers. 8 had an easy explanation- it was my birth date AND it was infinity. Now 12? Couldn't explain it, it just was.

Allow me for a moment to go into my frou-frou ways. Right before I got pregnant the first time (that ended in a miscarriage)- I had a really strong sense that the 8 and 12 would have some kind of meaning for our little one. Sure enough, the first pregnancy due date was around August 12th, 2012 (8-12-12). And then Ms. Iyla Grace decided to arrive ahead of schedule, and chose 11-12-12 as her birth date, born at 8:44pm. That stuff does not go unnoticed in my world! Also? I was married in 2008, and became a mother in 2012... two extremely huge life transitions.

Oddly enough the numerology of our current home (as well as our last home together) is the number 8. You arrive at it by adding up all of the numbers of your home address... so 2213 is 2+2+1+3 = 8. The 8 is known to hold the vibration of wealth & success. Upon first viewing our current home I noticed the "money" corner of the Bagua Map was missing- and indeed the builder was already losing money on it! Upon moving in we quickly purchased a stone water fountain to symbolically fill in that space & generate life (lots of birds and squirrels!) and energy (flowing water). You better bet I'm keeping that fountain filled!

Sam and Iyla looking out the back french doors toward our fountain. 
How can I not look at these guys and feel completely full of abundance? 

1 comment:

  1. We picked names we thought would be relatively easy to pronounce but they totally aren't. I am surprised at the mispronunciations I am hearing. Apple's name is Eitan and most people pronounce it EE-tawn or EE-tan ("tan" like to get a tan). It's actually EY-tahn. Ei=ey sound to me. Like "weigh" "neighbor" etc. But for some reason that is not what other people see.

    Also I didn't think about how confusing Banana's name (Noa) is. Because it sounds like Noah. But it's actually a completely different name in Hebrew. Oh well! Things you can't anticipate, I guess!

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