Happy birthday, Mary!


It didn't take long to come up with a name for my eldest daughter. I really wanted to honor her mother but wasn't as keen on having two people in the same house using the same name. We quickly settled on using my wife's middle name, Naomi. When my oldest son was born my wife chose his name during her delivery, the result of a tender and spiritual birthing experience. Adam is as solid a name as there is. I like to say it was good enough for God's first man on earth, so why not for my son?

Well, with two classic biblical names I have to admit I felt some pressure to continue the trend when my wife gave birth to our third child. We considered several names and my wife suggested a beautiful first name and my own mother's unique middle name as a second name. I wasn't sold on the two and asked my wife to consider a desire that I had since before I was married. For many years there was one name that I wanted to give a daughter but I wasn't sure I would get the chance. Now that I had a second daughter, I thought it was going to be either now or never.

During my years in Spain, I fell in love with the name María. I haven't verified this, but I am confident that it is the most common name in all of Spain. It's good enough for more than women and I know more than a handful of José María, Juan María and Francisco Marías. Because our first two children already had biblical names it seemed logical to continue the tradition and fulfill my desires at the same time. I did have one particular challenge; part of my love of the name is the sound of the castilian pronunciation. It is lilty, religious, playful, fun, and wise. But María rings very different to my ear than Muh Ree Uh.

So I teetered between wanting one name but knowing that everyone would pronounce it differently than I intended. I don't recall whether I came up with the compromise or if it was my wife. But the suggestion was to name her Mary, but I could call her María.  For me it was a perfect solution. We took the beautiful name of Eliza and melded it with Mary to create our dear, sweet, beautiful and talented Mary Eliza Newton. That was thirteen years ago and we celebrated the anniversary of her birth today.

If every teenager had the same gentle disposition and likability as our Mary, the negative rap on adolescents would disappear. I realize that we have seven years to go to get through the teenage years, but I couldn't be more pleased and smitten than by this wonderful daughter who brings joy to my life every day. Whether she plays the piano, laughs at my jokes, cleans her room or writes a story; she brings me ever increasing joy.

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