What's in a Name?

 "Did you know Elsa is a character in the movie Frozen?" - asked every student and every parent of a child ages 2-10 I've come into contact with in the past three months.

Yes. We named our daughter after a Disney Princess.  Our other favorites were Jasmine and Pocahontas.

Or is she more of an Arielle?

 I kid.  We had the name Elsa picked out months before she was born, even before we knew she was a "she," and long before the movie came out.

We decided on the name Elsa during a long car ride.  Anytime we were in the car and we were bored, we would go through the alphabet coming up with baby names for each letter.  When we got to letter "I," I  suggested "Isla" which we liked, but there was something a little off about it, which led Erik to change the I to E and move around a couple letters and the rest is history. 

We loved it from the start and it fit our (mostly my) qualifications....
- With a "colorful" last name, it couldn't be a color word (Hazel Golden, Ruby Golden)
- Also could not be a noun - consider situations where her last name would be listed first - like in a graduation program (Golden Daisy, Golden Summer)
- Could not be one of my student's names
- Could not be overly popular, but nothing too "out there" - something timeless
- Had to have a somewhat "simple" spelling (oh it's Jane...but spelled Jayghne)
- Had to flow (i.e. it couldn't end with the -en)
- Nothing too cutesy 

We loved that we didn't know any other Elsas....except:

The only other Elsa Erik knew of 

The only other Elsa Carrie could think of

Fortunately, not many people think of a villain from Raiders of the Lost Ark or a character from the Real Housewives of Miami with a botched face lift when they hear our daughter's name.

So there you have it.  Are we upset about the whole Disney thing? No, absolutely not.  I wouldn't change it if I could.  Luckily, my niece informs me that Elsa isn't an evil character in the movie and besides, how cool is it to have a doll, action figures, and Halloween costumes with your name? (It would be more cool if you could actually get your hands on one of these dolls right now).

Out of curiosity, how did you pick your child's name?