"She Looks Like a Zoe" There was never much debate about a name for our daughter. Sari always wanted a Zoe. About six months ago, the one friend she entrusted to keep the name secret remarked upon looking at her photo, "She looks like a Zoe."
The very same day, I called an out-of-town friend I hadn't heard from for a while to catch up. She told me about their new dog. The Labradoodle's name? "Zoe!" How did they decide on the name? "She looks like a Zoe." Sworn to secrecy, I had to restrain myself from laughing hysterically.

In Judaism, children are traditionally named for cherished deceased relatives ("CDRs"). But this usually only extends to the child's Hebrew name, which rarely comes up except at the child's bris/naming and bar/bat mitzvah. Once you get past the Hebrew name, pretty much anything goes in what you're really going to call your kid. If you don't particularly love the CDR's name or the child's gender is different from the CDR, you borrow the first letter to begin the child's English name. If the first letter doesn't lead to a name you like, maybe you'll use the second consonant from a nickname the CDR once had in a college fraternity. It's an often shameless stretch creating the guilt-paved Jewish documentation trail needed to justify giving your kid the name you really want to use.

The reason for Jewish stretch-naming is that most of our CDR's names wouldn't be all that trendy today. I suspect there aren't many kids running around on the playground named Shlomo, Pessie, Hyman, Leba, Ethel, and Abraham, the names of six of my great-grandparents. The other two--Jacob and Kate--have held up fairly well over the years. But remember that 1) she's a girl, and 2) she looks like a Zoe.

If you're still with me, here's our daughter's formal Hebrew name: Devorah Leah, bat (daughter of) Aharon Chaim (my Hebrew name) v'Sara Leba (Sari's Hebrew name).

Devorah is Sari's Bubbe Doris' Hebrew name. Now for the English stretch-name: Doris' maiden name was Zubin. That's now the Z in Zoe.

The Hebrew middle name, Leah, was my Nana Eleanor's Hebrew name. But here's where it works out nicely:

Zoe was born with the Russian name Elena. Very close to my grandmother's real English name (Lena). Eleanor, Lena and Elena are all variations of the same name (the Greek root Helen). So, in addition to honoring my Nana, it was also nice to keep Zoe's Russian name to honor her own heritage.

Finally, the name Zoe means "life giving" in Greek. Our grandmothers were so full of life and giving of themselves, we can think of no greater honor to bestow on this child who has given new meaning to our lives.

  ¶ 10:33 PM