what's in a name??

when nura was still in my tummy, family and friends would ask on a name for our baby. chot and i were so gung-ho on giving her a malay name, as oppose to an arabic name. we feel that giving our child a malay name is appropriate when baby is malay. and not like there's no meaning to the word/ name... not an arabic meaning but a malay meaning is a meaning nonetheless.

so classical malay names for girls are usually of flowers and for boys... i dunno... types of wood?? jept suggested a nice boy name of a type of wood. a manly name to call ur boy "Jati" right??

some other suggested names were "antoi" (my father-in-law). "antoi" is a type of flower by the way. and other non flower names like "murni" meaning "pure".

i always like the name "seri" for a girl. like m. nasir's daughter's name in the movie fenomena. "seri" means ""glow" although i think there might be other alternative meanings to the word.

and "tuah" for a boy. "tuah" means "luck".

once when we just got married, i suggested to chot that when we get a baby girl, i like to name her "comel" which means "cute". but chot shot that suggestion down, saying "comel" is the kind of name people give to their cat!!!

but when the time was finally here and baby was about to come into the world, i guess i chickened out (I chickened out since chot left the baby naming job to me). so as i always like (bordering on love for) "nura", i went with that. and that's that...

why did i chickened out?? i dunno really but most2 probably feeling like i was playing with an important issue like our child's name. i might scarred her for life by doing so. maybe, when she goes to school in malaysia, everyone might be making fun of her because of her "different" name.

and then there's the spelling of the name "nura"... and the pronunciation that chot and i went through. ideally it should be spelled "nuura" since it should be pronunced with a long "u".

oh well... i can't be too fussy on it because despite our best efford to give her a purfect name (in our eyes), people will still pronunce it the way they want. like my MIL, she kept calling nura "nOra"...

and now, as nura is spending time with us, growing and showing us her personality, we've been calling her with nicknames... i've sometimes call her "comot" = messy... due to how messy she looks after each feeding.

and chot calling her "konyot" sometimes. i don't know the word but he explained it as "bantal konyot", like a child's favorite pillow or blanket. when she's crumpled up and smelly but ultimately, well loved.