Choosing Baby Name

Choosing a baby’s name can be challenging with so much choice. From celebrity names, fashionable names, ancestral names or if you live in a Catholic country (like Poland) then one is restricted to a Catholic name only.
If you choose not to know the sex of the baby then it is even more difficult. Additionally, your choice may be unpopular with family members.
As soon as I found out that I was having a girl, my first choice with Nel. Why? It was a character from my favorite book as a child. My partner disagreed, he didn’t want her to be called names like Smelly Nelly at school.
I was disappointed as I felt like I had the right to choose the name as I was having to go through the labour and 9 months of pregnancy.
The other name which I liked was Zoe – which means life in Greek. I wanted a name which was brief but strong sounding to accompany the hard to pronounce Scottish surname – McIlwraith.
McIlwraith means “children of the mist” and their ancestral home is the Isle of Skye, an island on the West coast of Scotland. The family was happy with the choice of name although their was no Polish equivalent to the name Zoe. As a result, my family nicknamed her Zojka (pronounced Zoe ka)
I wasn’t planning to give my daughter a Polish name but my father in law really like the idea of Zoe having a Polish name so I gave her Natalia as a second name – after my favorite singer – Natalia Kukulska.
My daughter is nearly 12 now and we are both happy with the choice of name, importantly Zoe likes her own name.
Zoe (life) McIlwraith (Child of the Mist)
By Aggie