My name, Elizabeth, is a Hebrew name which means, God is My Oath. My middle name, Ann, is also a Hebrew name meaning Gracious and Merciful. When I was born January 16th, 1972, my parents actually did not have a name picked out for me. They were convinced I was going to be a boy and did not have a backup plan. I was supposed to be James Stephen. So, on my birth certificate the nurses actually wrote in Baby Girl and left it as that! My parents could not agree on a name for me so for the first almost 2 weeks of my life I had no name. They just referred to me as "the baby."
It wasn't until my maternal grandmother who had had enough of this nameless nonsense stepped in that my parents finally got down to the business of naming me. Everyone of course had suggestions. My brother, Tony, wanted to name me Nicodemus Aloysious. I know - horrible but very classical! In his defense he was studying both Greek and Latin in school at the time and was a tad bit obsessed...My father was pretty much hooked on Landry in honor of his favorite American football coach, Tom Landry, coach of the Dallas Cowboys. I was born on the biggest day in American football - the Super Bowl, which in the US is like the World Cup or baseball's World Series. To be specific it was Super Bowl VI and the Dallas Cowboys played the Miami Dolphins. My mother, not a football fan, vetoed that idea.
In the end it was a combination of family tradition and a Hollywood actress that got me my name. Elizabeth Taylor was one of the most popular actresses of the era. My mother was a fan. As for family tradition, my parents did not have to look so far. My mother's name is Sara Elizabeth. Her middle name was given to her in honor of her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Christiana. So in the end I was finally named Elizabeth like my great-grandmother and mother and Ann after the first syllables of my maternal grandmother's name as a thank you. Her name was Antonia. Of course my parents couldn't agree on the spelling of either Elizabeth or Ann. My father preferred Elizabeth with an "s" and Ann with no "e" at the end, while my mother favored Elizabeth with a "z" and Ann with an "e". They compromised and I ended up with the "z" my mother preferred and the no "e" my father liked. It was a win for everyone.
Ironically, considering how much effort went into naming me, when I was younger I didn't like my name at all. I thought it was too boring. When I was learning to spell I hated it because it was so long and had all of those hard letters to remember and write. I wanted something short. My parents always called me Elizabeth, but at school my best friend starting calling me Liz. My parents didn't like Liz or Lizzie so they decided to let me "borrow" my mom's nickname, Elie, and it stuck. It fit because everyone said I look like her. My best friend, though, still calls me Liz. As for my own children, my husband and I couldn't agree on any boys' names, so I guess it's a good thing we had girls. Keeping with the Elizabeth theme, Daniela's middle name is Elisabeth spelled with an "s" because I thought my father would like that and Isabel is actually just a variation of Elizabeth. It'll be interesting to see if in the future I have any granddaughters named Elizabeth. On a final note maybe my story did have some impact. Some years back they changed the laws so now no parent can leave the hospital with a baby without giving he or she a proper name to put on the birth certificate. That's a relief! I'd hate to think there were more "Baby Girls" or "Baby Boys" out there!
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