Picking a Baby Name: How Zhane Became Zhaynah

Three ultra sound techs told me I was having a baby, and that was all they could tell. One did say that she thought she saw a tiny male body part. An old Asian man told me I was having a boy. Women who thought they knew what shapes pregnant bellies took on while carrying different genders of children told me that there was definitely a little guy baking in my oven. With all the excitement over possibly having a baby brother for my toddler daughter, I am still surprised that I was able to refrain from buying bundles of blue baby items. A name was still up for deciding. Many were tossed out, but not many for a girl. We decided on Zhane. Zhane would be his name, surely. I hadn't even considered that it might be a girl (well, with all the "belly readings" that had predicted a boy)...until a baby girl was born.

Caught off guard, we scrambled through books and the brains of friends and relatives. Nothing seemed to fit though. My mother, grandmother of five grand daughters and no grand sons, whom all had names beginning with "A", suggested Aubree. I loved the name, but there was a part of me that was ready to break that "A" name tradition. I loved the name so much though, that I held onto it for use as a middle name. So, great; there we were with a baby girl who had a middle and last name. No first.

Then it hit me. I loved the name Zhane too much to let it go. It was, after all, daddy's favorite uncle's name. So, I thought up Zhaynah. I liked the sound of it, but the spelling didn't come together until much wordplay and notepad scribbling. And so my perfectly planned baby boy who was really a baby girl got her name.