Introducing our Maya

Introducing MAYA XINMEI MCFARLAND-MAH (XinMei pronounced Sjin-may)

It was a long and difficult decision. What moniker do we give a person that we've never met? Through the photos and the profile comments, we've projected a personality on to her but we have nothing substantial that we can base this projection on. Whatever we name her, we and she will have to live with it for the remainder of her life... The pressure is substantial!

John and I have kept track of every name we've liked over the past several years and had a Top 20 list at the time we received her picture. We both loved the name Maya but I had removed it from the list of possibilities as there were just too many M's in the name. However, after seeing her pictures and reading the (few) descriptions about her, Maya rejoined the list and quickly became a favorite. I was still stuck on the M's though so, to help ease my mind, we started conducting random polls. Showing her picture to 2-dozen complete strangers, we listed all of the name possibilities and asked which one suited her the best. It was unanimous... Maya was the winner. The M-thing was not ideal but it didn't seem to bother many people so, I guess, the decision was made.

Being me, I had to research the meanings of Maya as part of my decision making process. Loving the name just wasn't enough. What if it meant something terrible?! Luckily, all of the meanings we found for it were perfect. To start with, Maya means 'May' in the Anglo dictionary. As she was born in May, we're becoming a family in May and Mei is in her Chinese name, it has special meaning for us. It also means Princess in Arabic, Mother in Greek and Great One in Latin. All good.. This kid is going to rule the world! May is also the birth month of her brother-to-be, Ryan, and cousin-to-be, Megan.

Now, on to the zodiacs and more projections of her personality. Born May 19, she is a Taurus in the western zodiac - the same as her cousin, Megan. A 'bull' is considered Patient and reliable, Warmhearted and loving, Persistent and determined, Placid and security loving. All good! In the Chinese Zodiac, Maya was born in the year of the Rat, as was John. The traits of a Rat are: conquerors, charming, passionate, determined, tenacious, intelligent, attractive, seductive, charismatic, practical, protective, individualists, perfectionists, expansive and hardworking.

I think we're going to have our hands full...