What’s in a name?

As the time draws near I have begun to think a little about life after the pregnancy. I do not do this in dismay, but more out of amusement. It’s a habit I think, thinking about where and how certain situations and questions might come up. It would be impossible to write them all down. They are ever changing, sometimes to the absurd and other times to the complex. For you daughter, more than anyone else, I write this post. I know that in the future you will probably ask me and your mother about your name… all of them. To this end I wanted to address the first and most important.

It seems already such a long time ago that we settled on the name Arwen. I can hardly remember now all of the different variations and alternatives we discussed. It seems like there were hundreds, the list contained within this site barely scratches the surface. At first it seemed more like a game we played, passing along whimsical names some of them silly and others, as silly as they might have been, serious in the sense that they held very special places in our hearts. Names of people and characters from stories we loved popped up everywhere, so it only seemed in natural progression that we came upon the story of The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Perhaps by the time you read this we will have already read this most epic of tales together, and perhaps even on your own. This was a stopping point for me. The stories contain names that are both beautiful and powerful in their sounding as much as in their meaning. Also, for some reason, I had come to the conclusion that I wanted a name that, at the least, carried the line of my side of our family, that being English, Scottish and a bit of Swedish. So a Welsh name seemed appropriate.

My immediate thought came to the name Éowyn, a powerfully noble and independent woman who was fierce in battle, as in heart, and fair to the eyes. In this name I found the strength and character I hoped you would find in your life. Your mother did not share the same affection for this name as I did and she also feared that it was too hard to pronounce and spell. She then suggested Arwen, daughter of Elrond, betrothed of Aragorn and to the Elves in the story the Evenstar or Undómiel referring to a tale or prophecy suggesting that before the time of the Elves has ended in Middle Earth a last, bright star would come to them. This is a name I could easily accept. Being Welsh in origin, though slightly twisted, in Elvish it means “noble woman”. The Welsh spelling of Arwyn means “fair” and it was this spelling  that I wanted, but we later settled on Arwen being the more recognizable of the two.

And so Arwen became your first name, my name for you. No other name or term of endearment can hold more meaning or emotion for me towards you.

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As for those other names, your middle and second names. I think I will let your mother tell you the story of those.