why luanne

I don't think we ever waffled so much over the choice of a name, as over #3's.

David's name was the easiest. Day he was from womb onwards and Day he remains.

Dee was just as easy.

For the two, their names just sort of dropped into our laps, easy peasy.

Lu, well.

We had no precedent to follow, no rules to guide us. We didn't care if her name started with a letter "D" or whether it went with Day and Dee. Same rules as last time applied: Must be two syllables, simple and strong.

Some point in the second trimester I wanted very strongly to go with Sonia or Mia. KK was against it, said Sonia made her sound like a handbag and Mia meant grief.

Then (was it he or me? I forget) someone suggested Leura (pronounced Lu-ra).

That is the place where she was made, lovely Leura, a village in Sydney's Blue Mountains.

Only everytime we tried to pronounce the name with the surname (Loh), our tongues tripped up.

But the Lu stayed.

We started calling her Lulu. It's such a nice affectionate sweet name for a little girl.

To make it a little more respectable (for adulthood) I dragged it out and made it Luanne. It's a name I read somewhere in a novel.

Till the day she was born, KK would look at me doubtfully: "So it's Luanne?" and I would reply, equally in doubt: "I guess so". As we haven't come up with anything better and we have to make her birth certificate in the next two days, I guess Luanne is it!

Aptly, it apparently means "Graceful Woman Warrior". Another strong woman for the family, hopefully.