We've got people asking us where did we find the name 'Cora Amelie' and if it has any special meaning. If you search it up, of course there's some meaning behind the names separately, but that's not why we chose the name (Cora actually came from Greek, simply meaning 'girl'). The name was more of a compromise between me and Chris, whose style in pretty much everything is completely different, it also applies to baby names.
Chris likes classical and traditional names like Miriam, Sophie or Madeleine, while I love object names (being the hippy that I am) like Basil and Coral, or Shakespearian like Ophelia and Perdita.
I don't like biblical names (or any religiously rooted names, for that matter), trendy names (Madison or Bayley is just not my style), or classic names that have become too popular lately (Emma came to mind). Chris treaded carefully around names of people he knows and wanted to avoid names of his ex-girlfriends... all of them. Which eliminated almost 25% of our girl name pool (why he couldn't date girls with names like Bertha, Doris or Helga instead is beyond me... but then again, maybe he did). At least he also doesn't like trendy names, so we're on common ground on that.
In the end, after long and exhaustive elimination process, we settled on Cora. Cora seemed like a perfect balance between classic and modern, it sounds vintage. It's never too popular, but well known enough not to stand out as weird. It's difficult to mispronounce whatever native tongue you speak, which is an important point since we've got extended families spread across the globe. I personally love it because it's feminine but not overly girly. The name somehow made me think of a lively little red-haired girl living in the 20's or 30's, and I love that mental image.
For middle name it was a battle between Madeleine and Amelie. They are both lovely French names that go well with between Cora and Lochner, and they don't require too much tongue (nor spell) twisting. Amelie was decided upon because Madeleine was umm, too Catholic... Besides, Madeleine is getting too popular these days.
For a boy, we initially agreed on Julian, but later realised that our child would have to attend Dutch school one day. Knowing that the Dutch pronounce 'J' as 'Y', we didn't want him growing up constantly having to correct people who call him Yulian.
We didn't dwell long on boy names because then it was found out I was having a girl. Just in case the ultrasound got it wrong, I prepared a boy's name too: Damien. I figured since Chris was definitely not the devil, the child should do just fine...
Now that Cora is born and officially named, it's a wonder how rarely we actually call her by that name. Chris calls her Schnecke ('snail' in German) or Püppi. I love calling her Peanut or Coriander.
On the days when she's super clingy and demands to be held the whole day, she is, of course, Little Klingon.
PS: No pictures for today and the next couple of days. The camera is again broken beyond repair. This time it was me. I dropped it onto the floor. That means we have to shop for a new camera since the cost of repair would actually be more expensive than the price of a new one (don't you just love that marketing logic?).