I guess now that we have a new baby with a finalized name, I should complete my long and detailed documentation of how we decided on her name. Her name is Leah Kyrie Astle.

The middle name was decided first. I was pretty much decided on Kyrie months ago, from about the time I blogged about it here. I just couldn't think of another name that was as pretty and cool at the same time. Shelly made a halfhearted effort to keep the door open for some other middle name candidates - most notably Georgia - but in the end, she agreed that Kyrie was just the coolest name we could go with. There really wasn't much discussion about the middle name. A couple of days before the delivery, I think I said, "So are we going with Kyrie?" and Shelly said, "Sure."

Last I wrote, I noted that Mary had been eliminated, and we were down to a face-off between Leah and Kate. At that point, I was wracking my brain constantly trying to decide which of those two names I preferred. Each day - sometimes each hour - I would feel differently. I felt that they were both great names, actually quite different from each other, and I was really torn between them.

The night before the delivery, December 30, we dropped Ellie and Annie off at a friend's house to spend the night so we could get up early in the morning to go to the hospital. We left their house and went directly to the Uno Chicago Grill (I guess it's no longer known as Pizzeria Uno, since they serve other stuff too) in Kingstowne for dessert with the express purpose of not coming out of there until we had a name finalized. The Humanitarian Bowl was on the TVs over by the bar (you could tell by the blue turf), but our attention was focused on the task at hand.

First, we confirmed that it would be either Leah Kyrie Astle or Katherine Kyrie Astle. All other first-name choices were off the list, and Kyrie was the winner for the middle name.

We then each expressed our feelings for the names Leah and Kate. I basically said that I have been putting a lot of thought into this, and I can't decide between the two. Shelly basically said that she loves them both, but has a slight preference for Leah, because of its soft, smooth sounds.

I then said, "Well, OK, then it's Leah. I honestly don't have a preference, so let's go with your preference." And it was Leah. We finished our cookie sundae and went home, knowing our daughter's name.

The reaction to the name, as we have told people, has been pretty predictable - after all, we've been feeling people out about our name possibilities for a long time now. Everyone likes Leah and says it's a "beautiful name." (You have to say that once the baby is born, though, of course.)

The one surprise is that a couple of people have actually responded with: "How do you spell it?" We politely respond "L-E-A-H," but inside I want to say, "How many ways are there to spell Leah?" Leia is pronounced "Lay-a," as in Princess Leia. So is Lea, to the extent that's a real name at all. We're not going to be spelling it something odd like Lia or Leigha or Leeah. I had a friend in my law school days who spelled it Lija, but that's because of her Ukranian heritage. Leah is a major character in the Old Testament. There's only one real way to spell it. Sheesh.

And so far, only three people (my sister-in-law Liz (who actually said she was considering it for her daughters), an old friend from high school and college, and a lady in our ward) have grasped the significance of Kyrie without being told. We expected no different result. It's also no surprise that those three people have a common characteristic: they are all serious musicians. So that has turned out just as we planned.