Party of Four

What is in a Name? - Cole

By the end of May, Riley and I finally had all of our stuff in the new house, and we were closing on the sell of our old one. Now we had to unpack. Had we went about moving in the best way? Absolutely not. However, as we started to fill the house with our stuff and we slowly got rid of boxes, it actually started to look like a home.

On top of that, Nica had started moving in sooner than we expected. She’d started packing her stuff earlier than we thought she would, stating that she “had nothing else to do,” and didn’t want to assume she’d still have the energy and ability to do it later when she could do it now.

She and Riley shared similar aesthetics, so a lot of her decor got placed throughout the house. Her faux taxidermy pixie and mounted jackalope head both hung in the living room, her goddess statuettes were placed randomly on shelves. She filled the cubbies under the bay window bench with some of her books. She and Riley even discussed other things they wanted to eventually add to the decor.

As boxes were unpacked and the house became decorated, I started to realize just how little effort Riley and I had ever put into the old one. We’d had the bare minimum of furniture, even in our bedrooms. Any decor we had were random things mom didn’t want anymore. I hadn’t even had curtains in my room -not that it mattered now- but we hadn’t had curtains in the living room either. We didn’t even have blinds before.

Riley had curtains, but no rod, he’d simply hung the curtains directly to the wall. Mom didn’t let him do that here. For one, there were blinds. Two, she said we’d stepped up in life, and we needed to look like it. So dad installed curtain rods in every room before we’d finished moving in.

With Nica agreeing to put the commitment ceremony off until next year, it gave mom more opportunity to plan the baby shower too. She was still actively putting together Pinterest boards for both, and compiling vendor lists, but her focus was more actively on the immediate future. Now that we knew we were having a girl, mom was pushing us to make a baby registry for the baby shower, and she kept asking us about names. She wanted to know what kind of theme we wanted for the shower, as well as in the baby’s nursery.

The only thing we’d agreed on so far, was that we would have an enchanted fairytale garden theme for the shower, and let that carry over into the nursery. With the shower being planned for late July, it also meant we could make use of the pool if we had it at home. I had no desire to participate in baby shower games.

“What about Scarlett?” Nica asked one night while flipping through the pages of a book.

“It’s okay,” Riley commented.

“I like Grace,” I suggested.

Riley wrinkled his nose up. “It sounds like an old lady.”

“Well she’s not going to be a baby forever,” I argued.

“She’s also not going to be old for like…seventy years,” Riley countered.

“Selene,” Nica cut in. “Oh, or Serena after Sailor Moon.”

“I thought her name was Usagi,” my brows pulled together in thought.

“Depends on the dub,” she clarified. “I think we’d get some funny looks naming her Usagi though since none of us are Japanese.”

“Claire is pretty,” Riley suggested.

“Serena Claire,” Nica tested the names out together, causing them both to wrinkle their noses.

“Dad picked Riley’s name from a Pearl Jam song.”

Nica’s brow furrowed as she tried to think of what song I was referencing.

“Jeremy,” he clarified.

“I keep forgetting that’s your actual name.”

“Riley is my actual name too…it’s just my middle name,” he pointed out. “And Cole’s first name is Benjamin.”

I scowled at the reminder while Nica laughed. “Well I think Cole and Riley suit you both perfectly.”

“Do we want her to have a name that gets turned into a nickname though?” I asked, fighting the urge to hunch my shoulders and cringe at the reminder of all the great aunts up in Tennessee that would refer to me as Benji when I was a kid.

Nica shrugged, “I don’t think it would necessarily be a bad thing. Some nicknames could be really cute. I go by a nickname.”

“What about Hazel?” Riley asked.

“That’s kind of…old too,” Nica told him, her voice gentle.

“Yeah, you might as well have said Blanche.”

He scowled and threw a pillow at me which I knocked down. “Hazel’s not that bad.”

“No, it’s cute,” Nica confirmed. “It just doesn’t feel right. It’s just a little southern grandma for me.”

“Okay, Morticia, what order ideas do you have? Raven? Annabelle?” Riley asked.

Nica shook her head, laughing. “Raven is so stereotypically goth. And Annabelle sounds like a plantation owner’s daughter.”

“Wasn’t Annabelle the name of the cow in that Christmas movie you were obsessed with when we were kids?” I asked Riley.

“We’re definitely not naming our daughter after a cow,” Nica confirmed.

“Cordelia, we could call her Delia…or even Cordie?” Riley suggested.

“Like in Buffy?” Nica asked, her mouth pinching together as she considered it.

“I kind of like Ophelia,” I told them.

“It’s so common now because of that song though,” Nica pointed out.

“Iris?” I suggested.

She shook her head, still frowning. “That’s kind of old too. I think all the old people stole the pretty flower names because that’s all I associate them with now.”

“Poppy,” Riley stated, a new conviction in his voice like he’d found the perfect solution. “Like your tattoo.”

“Poppy,” Nica repeated, considering it.

I couldn’t deny that it was cute. It was youthful and vibrant, unlike the more common floral names that were popular.

“There aren’t a lot of names that go with it though,” I pointed out, a frown tugging at my lips.

“Poppy Claire,” Riley tested, circling back to his earlier suggestion.

Nica frowned.

“Poppy Elizabeth.”

Nica’s frown deepened and she shook her head.

“Victoria or Jane?” Riley suggested.

“What is with you and the old people names?” I asked.

“They’re not old people names,” Riley argued. “They’re classic.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Magnolia is pretty,” I suggested carefully, considering it was part of the apartment Nica had just left behind.

“Poppy Magnolia…” Riley frowned as he said them together.

“What if…” Nica started slowly, clearly still thinking about what she wanted to say. “We could use Poppy as her nickname, and still give her a longer name?”

“What name could Poppy be short for?” I asked. “There aren’t really a lot of ‘P’ names.”

“Philippa,” Nica scowled as Riley said it. “Penelope.”

“Penelope is cute,” I admitted. “Apollonia could work for ‘Poppy’ too. Or Pomona.”

“Persephone,” Nica breathed, her eyes wide like she was struck with a revelation. The perfect name. “Persephone Magnolia, and we’ll call her Poppy.”

“Wasn’t Persephone the queen of hell?” Riley asked.

“Underworld,” Nica clarified. “She was also the goddess of spring and rebirth.”

“Persephone Magnolia,” I repeated. “It’s pretty.” It also gave far plenty of options for other nicknames if she ever decided she didn’t like Poppy. And if she ever decided to go by her formal name, it was pretty and sophisticated. Unlike Benjamin.