Whats in a name...

We spent a lot of time deciding on the perfect name for our precious baby. With my history, I was too cautious and refused to think of names before she was born. But after that, it was open season! We looked through our baby names book and scoured the net. The main criteria was meaning, exclusivity and ease of use. We zeroed in on Ishika/Ishi (reference to Goddess Durga as our baby was born 2 days after Vijay Dashami/Dussehra) and Saisha - Meaningful life/ truth of life. The former was my choice, the latter was hubby's preference. We had also like Anousha/Anoushka, but knew at least 3 friends who had named their daughter with some spelling variant of that name, so that was out.

The final decider came when we decided to check on gmail and facebook for Saisha Tripathi and Ishika Tripathi. Saisha won facebook with no other similarly named profile. It was hence deemed a winner on exclusivity, with the other two criteria being met by both names. We went by the spelling Saisha (variants are Sayesha, Saisa, Shaisa, Shayesha, etc. with conflicting information on meanings). As a bonus, the brevity and ease of pronunciation of 'Ishi' made it very suitable as a nickname, and also kept the Goddess Durga reference. Her dada deemed her rashi name was to start with the syllable 'Se'. So her dadu suggested Celina (after Celina Jaitely) and I suggested Selina (Selina Gomez - teen star). Since both start with the syllable 'Se' in hindi and are pronounced in the same way, both apply!

So we felt we had the perfect name Saisha - unusual, meaningful and easy to say. Immediately gmail and facebook accounts were set up. All seemed well with the world.

Wait did i say - Unusual? Yea right. Within a couple of days of officially naming her, we discovered at least 2 more Saisha-daughters in our larger friend/acquaintances circles. Then from everywhere, there were Saishas materializing from nowhere. Today there was actually a Page 3 news item on a socialite giving a monsoon birthday party for her daughter named - you guessed it - Saisha. Down to the same spelling. Oh you've just got to be joking >.< At least her surname isn't Tripathi!!!!!