How Violet got her name

When the husband and I started dating, I brought up the topic of marriage and children pretty quickly. I ignored every bit of dating advice that tells women to dance around such issues for fear they will "scare the guy away" and cut to the chase. Because life is too short to invest time in something that isn't going where you want to go, right? Besides, if he wasn't the guy for me, he would have run for the hills. Instead he stayed. And eventually we got married and now we have a child.

At some point, long before we got married, we started talking about kid's names. Generally it did not go well. We both had strong negative reactions to each other's suggestions. I found his choices too run-of-the-mill and he found mine too out there.

But one day, during a visit with his mom, she told us about one of her aunts. A woman who left the small Ontario town she called home at just 16 years old and made her way alone to Detroit. There she became a dressmaker and eventually ventured out to Los Angeles where she opened a dress shop. She even made a dress for Bette Davis.

She also had a crush on Bing Crosby, who was a big bridge player (who knew?), so she taught herself to play bridge and went on the tournament circuit, hoping to meet him. Sadly, it wasn't to be.

My Mother-in-Law recently told us that her aunt would send home a box of clothes every year, knowing that money was tight. In particular she remembers a white angora sweater and a gold necklace with a leaf pattern, which she wore for a school concert.

And while this aunt married, she never had children of her own, so when she passed away she left money to all of her 13 nieces and nephews. The money my Mother-in-Law received allowed her to buy the land on Georgian Bay where my Husband grew up and where she still lives today.

Her aunt's name was Violet.

From that time on, we always referred to our future child as Violet. And while we discussed other girl's names when I was pregnant, we both knew that it was already a done deal. (If a boy had arrived, we were much less prepared!)

So when they lifted her up so I could see her and said, "It's a girl," I didn't hesitate. "It's Violet!" I said. "Violet is here!" And so she was.


We call her Vivi, since I'm not that crazy about Vi. And her middle name is my last name, since we didn't want to hyphenate, but I wanted her to have a part of me. It all suits her.

I hope she likes it. And I hope she has the adventurous spirit and determination of her namesake.