BoingBoing‘s Cory Doctorow and his partner, Alice Taylor, just welcomed a baby girl. Their newborn daughter’s full name is Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow.
What do the names refer to? According to the links in Cory’s post…
- Poesy is defined as “poetry; poetic language and ideas; literature; a poem, a passage of poetry.”
- Emmeline was inspired by British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928).
- Fibonacci was inspired by Italian mathematician Fibonacci (c.1170-c.1250).
- Did you know that Fibonacci’s name is actually a sobriquet? It was created either from Filiorum Bonacci, “of the family of Bonacci,” or Filius Bonacci, “son of Bonacci.” His real name was Leonardo of Pisa (or Leonardo Pisano).
- Nautilus was inspired by the submarine Nautilus in science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) by Jules Verne.
Here are some of the comments Cory has received regarding the name so far:
- “Too bad you won’t have any names available for the next child.”
- “And you do realize you have doomed her to a life of “No, my name’s NOT POSY.””
- “I’m particularly fond of Emmeline, though my inner geek is jumping for joy at “Fibonacci Nautilus”.”
- “P.E.F.N.T.D. is going to be hell to monogram, though.”
What’s your opinion of the name?
(A big thanks to Nancy Friedman of Away With Words for telling me about this one!)
I know a lot of people who would freak out about this child’s name. “She’ll get teased.” “It’s horrible to do that to a kid.” Etc. But I don’t see anything terribly wrong with it.
The child is likely to be known as Poesy Doctorow, which is unusual and adorable. Or Emmeline Doctorow, which is also lovely. It’s very rare that people use middle names in day-to-day life, and when they do, the form they’re filling out only leaves room for one of them, so the extra names don’t have to be brought up or defended or discussed. They become a quirky and fun personal fact that makes for interesting conversation fodder depending on whether the child chooses to discuss it or not.
However, if this kind of name were to become a trend, I’d tire of it quickly.
Still, it’s fun to ponder the possibilities…it turns names into a kind of poetry.
Another cool thing about her name is that Nautilus is not only the name of the submarine on Jules Verne famous novel, but also a sea mollusc, whose shell shape can be described with math using the Fibonacci sequence.