What's in a name?

My first two daughters were named after their mum's grandmothers and the third was loosely named after a great aunt of hers, so when the fourth one came along, I thought maybe it was time my family got a look in (although, admittedly, Hannah's middle name was for my mum, Barbara).

My maternal grandmother was called Amy Violet and my dad's mum was Rose Emily, so out of all that we managed to get Amelia Rose, which I thought was beautiful (and still do). That said, from the word go, our fourth little girl was referred to as Milly.

I always found it odd naming babies. It's fun thinking of names beforehand and, in my experience, you usually find something you like pretty much in time. Sometimes you like the name so much it makes you even more excited about the baby's arrival and yet when they do turn up, naming them seems a bit arbitrary to me.

This little person arrives, fully formed, into the world, and I always feel like they must already have a name, if only they could tell us what it is. But they can't and so we give then this label and, for me, anyway, it can take a little while to stick. 

Maybe that's why I like nicknames, which emerge and evolve along with the child's character, and sometimes they can seem more real to me than the actual names, even if they're just nonsense.