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“So. Should we start talking about names?” Molly asked two days after their daughter kicked for the first time. They were lying in bed together with Abigail sound asleep in her crib nearby. Soon she was going to be too big for that crib, and they were going to need to plan for a new place for her to sleep. There was so much to plan for, but Molly thought first and foremost they should pick a name for the child they were expecting.
Sherlock nodded. “I think that would be a good idea. We need to be able to call her something when we talk about her.” He looked over at Molly. “Do you have anything you particularly like?”
“What about Viola?” she asked thoughtfully. “Close enough to your mother’s name, I think, without being exactly the same.”
Sherlock made a face. “I’m not naming our daughter after a musical instrument.”
Molly chuckled slightly and grinned. “What about Lullabelle?” she said innocently. “That’s a pretty name.”
“That’s a name on par with my own. That would get her teased dreadfully.” He thought for a moment. “What about something more cultured and classic, like Alexandria? Or Anastacia?”
“Those are good, I suppose,” she replied. “I kind of like Morticia. That’s a good one.”
“If you think that’s a good name I don’t want to know what a bad name would be,” he grumbled. She began to laugh quietly and he looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “What’s so amusing?
“I’m purposefully picking atrocious names,” she said as her laughter tapered off. “It’s kind of a game. I think coming up with all the names we wouldn’t ever name our daughter can be quite fun.” She nudged him gently. “I’m sure you can come up with a few, right?”
He thought for a long moment. “Virtue,” he said. “Or Constance.”
“See, you’ve got it!” she said. “What about Liberty?”
He grinned at her. “The rallying cry of Americans,” he replied. “What about Hortence?”
Molly laughed a bit louder this time. “Oh, that would get her tormented for her entire life. She’d hate us for sure.” She thought for a moment. “We could give her a normal name that’s spelled weirdly, like Shelley with an e before the y.”
“Like the Frankenstein author?” he asked, and she nodded. “What about Patrycia with a y?”
“Between the r and c or the c and a?” she asked.
“I was thinking between the r and c, though either spelling would be abominable.” He looked around the room. “What about Kelli with an i instead of a y?”
“That’s not absurd enough. You have to think bigger.” She thought for a moment. “We could absolutely ruin her life and give her a very long name. Like Annachristina.”
“All one word?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“That’s a horrible name. Though we could be even worse and give her a nonsense name, like…Tableaurade.”
“I like it. But if we’re going to do long and nonsensical I have the perfect one,” she said with a grin.
“What would that be?” he asked.
“Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious,” she said with a smug smile.
“Can you even spell that?” he asked with an amused look on his face.
“No,” she admitted. “We’d just call her Super for short.”
“She’d disown us as soon as it came time for her to learn to write that name.” He was quiet for a moment. “Wasn’t there some fad where celebrities gave their children absurd names?”
“Was? There still is. I mean, there’s Apple and Blue and other ones like that. Sometimes I read the tabloids and I look at the names and I wonder if the parents are purposefully trying to get their children to hate them.”
“If we gave our daughter any of the names we’ve come up with so far we might be eligible for a ‘worst parents of the year’ award,” he mused.
“Well, we could aim for that with a name like Wood, or Chalk,” Molly said.
“Or Banana.”
Molly barked out a loud laugh but then covered her mouth. She sat up a little bit more to check on Abigail, who was still sleeping through their conversation. “Abigail would hate that since she hates that fruit,” she said after she settled back into her pillow. “What about another fruit? Like Orange? Or Berry?”
“Or we could go to colors, like Green or Pink,” he said.
“There’s actually a musician out there named Pink, though she uses an exclamation mark instead of an i,” she said.
“Really?” Sherlock asked, surprised. “Is that her actual name?”
“I think it’s just a stage name,” she said as she shook her head. “Rather like Lady Gaga.”
“I’m assuming you think I know who they are,” he said.
She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “No, I know you don’t know who they are,” she said. “But I would pay good money for you to listen to an entire Lady Gaga song and not cringe.”
“Okay,” he said with a nod. Then he settled in more. “On a more serious note, though. What would be a good name? Maybe something like Greta? Or Marguerite?”
“No to the first. It sounds so old fashioned and straight out of ‘The Sound of Music,'” she said, making a face. “But I would consider Marguerite. It sounds very elegant.” She was quiet for a moment. “What if we picked something simpler, like Abigail’s name?”
“Like Emma? Or Jane?” he suggested.
“Those are nice,” she said. “I also like Charlotte and Elizabeth.”
“The last four names we’ve come up with have been in Jane Austen novels,” he said thoughtfully.
“Have you ever read any of those novels?” she asked with a smile.
“One or two, to see why they appealed to my mother so much,” he said. “There is something to be said for a classic name, though.”
“Yes, there is,” she said with a nod.
“What about Rebecca?” he suggested.
She thought it over for a minute and then gave him a wide smile. “I actually like that a lot.”
“I do too,” he said. “What should her middle name be?”
“Rebecca Catherine?” she said tentatively. “Or Rebecca Lindsey?”
He shook his head. “Rebecca is a slightly more formal name, even if it is simpler. I think her middle name should be as simple as possible.”
She was quiet for quite a few minutes. “Well, what about Rebecca Anne?” she suggested finally.
“Rebecca Anne,” he said slowly, like he was mulling over the sound of it. Then he nodded. “Simple, yet still very nice.”
“Then I think we have a name,” she said with a smile.
“Are we giving her my last name, even though we aren’t married yet?” he asked.
She nodded. “That way we all have the same last name once you and I are married. Changing my last name is already going to be a bit of a hassle. Having to change two would be too much of a headache.”
“Rebecca Anne Holmes,” he said quietly, giving Molly a grin. “I like it a lot.”
Molly smiled back before she looked at him with surprise on her face. “She kicked!” she said, smiling. She moved her hand to her abdomen, and after a moment he put his hand in the same area. “Say it again.”
“Rebecca Anne Holmes,” he said, leaning in more towards her belly. “Do you think that’s a good name for you, little one?” After a moment there was another kick, and his smile widened. “Then that will be the name we go with.”
“I’m glad that decision’s been made,” she said as he pulled his hand away. “There’s still so many more we need to make, like where the girls are going to sleep and how we’ll decorate the nursery and all of that. But I suppose we can put those off until tomorrow.”
“That would be best,” he said as he yawned. “I think now would be a good time to attempt to get some rest, before Abigail wakes up.”
“I think that would be a good idea as well,” Molly said with a nod. She reached over to her nightstand and turned off the light before curling up on her side. “Good night, Sherlock.”
He turned off his own light and rolled onto his side, holding her close. “Good night, Molly.” Then he let his hand drift to her abdomen. “Good night, Rebecca.”
“Don’t you dare make me teary-eyed right now, Sherlock,” Molly said, though in a teasing voice.
“I will try my best,” he said, pressing a kiss in her hair.
“Good,” she said with a slight nod before settling against him. This was a good decision, she thought to herself. She hoped the rest would come just as easily.