What's in a name?

Well, we've yet to decide on a name for the new baby, but that's not what this is about.

"What shall we call the herd?" is the question we keep coming back to. After chewing over all sorts of sensible and daft names, searching for that magic 'something' that would work for both of us, we've pretty well decided on 'Les Lamas de l'Aubaine'.

If you've not reacted immediately positively to this, then either it works better in the French, or we've not chosen well. Let me explain the meaning, and then you can react again!

First of all, we decided the name should be in French - because being in France is a very important part of our new life - but should be pronounceable in English (les lamas de l'aubaine = lay lama de l'o-ben).

This meant that llamas would become lamas, as for some reason the French don't accept either the pronunciation or the spelling of the Spanish word llama. In English, as is so often the case, we keep the spelling of a foreign word, but pronounce it as if it were English. Hence the rhyme which my daughter Nikita drew to my attention:

The one-l lama,
He's a priest.
The two-l llama,
He's a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn't any
Three-l lllama.*

-Ogden Nash

*The author's attention has been called to a type of conflagration known
as a three-alarmer. Pooh.

So, our llamas (English) become lamas (French), but with a nice Buddhist sub-text . . . .

Then 'aubaine'. In old French, around 1200, an aubaine was a foreigner. Foreigners came under the protection of the king, and part of this meant that if a foreigner died, then their possessions were inherited by the king - a system known as 'droit d'aubaine'. This was not abolished till 1819, well after the Revolution. By the end of the 18th Century, the term 'aubaine' had moved to a wider use than the droit d'aubaine, now meaning anything that was an unexpected gain, a godsend, a windfall. So, the word includes two relevant senses for us - 'foreign' and 'pleasant surprise'.

What do you think? Comments welcome . . . . Nothing is fixed until we register the new baby or formally create the business.