Bumble. Probably.

Chosing names is so complex.


Before Mateo was born, knowing I was having a boy did at least half the choice that was available. Quite early on in my pregnancy, I had a dream that insisted my son would be called Orlando - choice didn't come into it. This was before 'Pirates of the Caribbean' too, so it was an out-of-the-blue name at the time.
Cesar didn't like it.
Then I decided he would be Lawrence, after my wonderful maternal grandfather. And that sort of stuck. We both liked Mateo as a second name and so, when he was born, those are the names I gave. If you read my earlier post, then you'll know that before I'd really seen him, he was whisked off to the special care baby unit and it was going on eight hours before I got to look at him properly. And when I did, he simply was not a Lawrence - he was Mateo. So we switched the names around, but I still have his little hospital tag with Lawrence Mateo.

And he's still very Mateo.

Ruy's name was going to be Lucas; and although I liked the name, it didn't feel right but we just couldn't come up with a better alternative. Then one evening about a fortnight before he was due (11th September, 2001 - though he was a week late) Cesar just happened to be telling me about the big, black Brazilian pot-smoking photographer who lived above his apartment in Milan - haven't a clue what he was telling me, because he had mentioned the name - Ruy. And that was it;  not a second's doubt and I still adore the name (and the boy) and love to say it. And his second name is Eliot - partly because I love George Eliot, the author, and partly because of the boy in E.T. - and it's spelt with just the one of everything so the Spanish contingent weren't confused and would pronounce it in the same way.

As for Romy - she was going to be Isabella, which is a beautiful name, but which, as time progressed began to seem more and more like the name of a tragic princess to me. (Pregnancy arouses all sorts of strange ideas.) We struggled to agree on any name - Cesar liked Trini; I didnt. I liked Lois, then changed my mind. After she was born, it was a good twelve hours before I decided that Romy suited her even if I wasn't absolutely sure about the name itself. And it does suit her and she is a Romy and there are not that many around. And she is Romy Luisa which is lovely.




But the puppy? The responsibility is not the same. It needs to be a name that we like to say; not much else. Something with only positive connotations.  But it has not proved easy.









After laying out a list of about a hundred different names, after asking friends on Facebook, after dredging memories and consulting books - all without consensus or commitment - we started saying words at random. At the words, Bumble Bee, the puppy leapt up, wagging his tail and behaving in the most bizarre and excited way. We all felt we could go along with Bumble. So Bumble he is.











Probably.