Ella is in the Pool

No, we haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, we’ve just been drinking cocktails by the pool. In fact, remi still is. Bitch.

Said pool was filled with far too many kids for our liking, and judging by the plaintive wails of their mothers, every second one was called Ella. Which is fine. Much to our disappointment there were no horrific names in apparent attendance, and upon my return I have discovered several days worth of birth announcements filled with perfectly normal names. And the occasional, but not occasional enough, Jett. Thrilling and disappointing at once.

However, before remi joined our group sojourn north, I was greeted by the pleasant news that friends of mine are expecting a baby. So a few of us sat down to throw around some baby names and discovered it was more difficult than expected to come up with something appropriate. Why? Because the surname of the couple in question is a botanical noun.

Think “Tree”. (It’s not actually Tree, but it’s pretty close.)

Now imagine how many names, particularly for girls, disappear from your potential names list when that’s your surname.

Rose. Lily, Ivy, Olive, Oliver, Iris, Poppy, Daisy, Violet. And on and on.

Hell, even Gwyneth’s silly “Apple” is off the list for more than just its obvious stupidity.

Luckily they’ve got six months to give it further consideration.