Monday, April 26, 2010

Random

I have been doing lots of watercolor painting this weekend. I'll get some of it up once I have the time. For now, I wanted to share the reason we chose the name Lyra, as requested in one of the comments.


There are two reasons for her name:
1) I love the stars, and there is the constellation Lyra. It means lyre, as in the instrument that Orpheus played to calm and enchant nature and the animals. The story ends tragically, as all myths generally seem to. 


2) This one might be more controversial...I know a lot of people were opposed to these books, but I will not debate them. Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy has the lead character whose name is Lyra. She's a feisty little redhead, and although she's not perfect, we liked a lot of the qualities she portrayed.


It was fairly unique, without being totally unheard of. And we were so excited when we found out we were having a girl, and we'd get to use this name. I'm obviously sad I won't have a little redhead (assuming she took after me...the nurses said she had red hair) running around, but her name is not wasted. She's forever our little Lyra, and forever loved.

11 comments:

  1. I think the name Lyra is beautiful :)

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  2. i love love love the philip pulman books and i did wonder if her name was inspired by them, i love her name, looking forward to seeing your water colours xxx anne

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  3. It is such a pretty name, so unique and feminine. Thanks for sharing. xo

    I am off to look up the trilogy now as I have never heard of them!

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  4. I love her name - musical, feminine and unique.

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  5. I think there's so much in a name. How it sounds and it's meaning. With Lyra, you picked a beautiful name.

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  6. I had never met anyone with that name. But I will always remember it now :)

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  7. I really love the name Lyra. Lyra Mae, such a beautiful name. XO

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  8. It is a beautiful name. I sometimes wish we had used the name we were going to call Hope all along, had she been a girl. In my instant grief haze, I chose to "save the name". Now I'm not sure I could ever use that name again, if I was even lucky enough to have another little girl. It all feels like such a waste. Her life, the name.....
    xo

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  9. I love the Philip Pullman books too. I had wondered if your Lyra was named for the Lyra in the books. Beautiful name for a beloved girl. x

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