Dolce and The Princess

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

Shortly after her birth Sophia had acquired a monicker of “the princess”. I am certain that my sister was among the first adopters if not the origin of referring to Sophia as “the princess”. I receive a text, a call or an email daily from my sister asking about how her princess is doing. I was quite sure that Sophia and Eliza’s proud aunt would simply pluralize the monicker and refer to the girls are “the princesses”. However, I was quite surprised when she recently asked how her “Dolce and The Princess” were doing. I recall inquiring about Dolce and since it means “sweet” in Italian and Spanish, my sister informed me that she thought that was just the monicker for Eliza. Well, it was love at first sight… me and Dolce—not only when she was born—but also with this monicker. Somehow, for some reason, she really is sweet and the monicker fits just perfectly.

Speaking of names. People get very particular with their kids names and I think they have good reason for it, too. I always am careful to refer to other people by their given names or short names if they are known. Sophia also goes by Sophie and never, ever, ever, ever (did I mention E-V-E-R) by Sofa which happens to be a short version of her name in Russian. That was perhaps the biggest issue we had with this name when we selecting one. Similarly, Eliza will go by Ellie but never, ever, ever, ever ‘Liza.

I’ve never explained why we chose these particular  names for the girls and since we’re talking about names, now’s as good of a time as ever. Sophia is named after her paternal great grandfather Sol. Her middle name Vida is after her maternal great grandfather. We chose Sophia (since we needed a name with an S) because it means “wise” and we were hopeful ;-). Eliza, whose middle name is Mischa, is named after her maternal great grandfather whose name was Mark (anglicized). We chose Dolce’s first name because we liked it, and it isn’t after anyone. That being said, much like Eliza Doolittle from Pygmalion, we hope that she has a little spunk and is outgoing and feisty — fitting given her birth order.