What is in a Name?

On July 3^rd when I went to go pick a little kitten to join my little family, I had absolutely no idea that I would have such a difficult time picking a name. I figured since it was just me choosing and I could pick whatever I wanted, it would be easy. HAH! I was a fool.

I spent two weeks going through every single Harry Potter name I could think of (this included food,  places, spells, potions etc..) I looked up Elf names, and words in Elvish. The little one reminded of a fox or a deer, a changeling, or a fairy and so looked up those words in various languages. I looked up words for happiness, song, love, sun and nothing fit. I randomly picked up books in my apartment and sifted through pages hoping a name would jump out at me. I looked at glacier names in Alaska, plants native to Ireland and Scotland, and characters in my favorite Disney movies. Nothing fit. And then of course I found out after two weeks that my darling little boy kitten was actually a girl. After getting over that little shock I started my search all over again only now looking for girl names. But still, no matter how hard I searched nothing fit.  

So how did her name finally come to be? This past Saturday night I was watching her scamper about the living room and once more thought of how she acted like a little deer. A flash of inspiration occurred and I whipped out my phone and looked up “female deer on Bambi”. The name “Faline” flashed back at me and I looked up at her intrigued…that just might work! I liked Faline (pronounced “eeen”) but I also thought “Falyn” would be pretty. I tried both names a few times but still they didn’t quite stick. But Sunday morning when I opened my eyes, the words “Good Morning Falina” jumped out of my mouth. I really liked that but still wasn’t quite sure.

I am going to semi-segue here and say that one of my newest favorite shows is Once Upon a Time, and one of my all time favorite names from that show is Baelfire.I thought of this name and decided if I used either of those names they would be spelled Faelina or Faelyn. Out of curiosity I decided to see if the name “Faelina” existed out there, and if so what it meant. I didn’t find a meaning but learned that this is apparently the name of a sorceress on World of Warcraft and that the character had a sister named Faelira which I also liked. I was pretty certain her name would be one of those two but couldn’t decide which. I was calling her both, and then all of the sudden out of nowhere I found myself calling her “Faelfire” (I evidently really like the name Baelfire).

Now it was about 2pm on Sunday afternoon, and for the rest of the day those three names were used on that poor cat countless times, still by the time I went to bed I was just as clueless. I liked all of them a lot, and they all seemed to fit her for different reasons. Monday morning I decided enough was enough and that I needed to get someone else involved. So (way too early for her) I sent my best friend a text with the names and asked her to pick her favorite. Her response of “Faelina is beautiful” sealed the deal. Faelina she was. I wasn't able to find a meaning for that name specifically, but "fae" does mean fairy and "lina" depending on where you look means delicate, light, compassionate or graceful. She is my graceful, delicate, fairy.

And now looking at her I don’t know why I was so confused. Of course she is Faelina – she couldn’t be anyone else.