What's in a name

We’ve had a lot of people ask how we came up with Lela’s name. We definitely did NOT have the name already picked out. Babak and I had discussed names, of course, but we thought we had another 7 weeks or so to narrow down the list! Instead, we found ourselves in the post-op room frantically trying to come up with a name for the beautiful little girl we met unexpectedly early on Sunday. Well, I was frantic – but that was probably a combination of hormones and pain meds and terror and exhaustion.

For us, the perfect name had to work well in Farsi and in English and had to fit with “Tabatabai.” We knew that “Charlotte” would be the middle name, after my grandmother with whom I was very close. After our first brief meeting on Sunday, we decided Lela was the perfect fit.

Lela facts:

• Lela is pronounced “Lee-lah”
• Persian Lelas often spell it “Lila”, but we avoided that spelling because we didn’t want to confuse with “LI-la”
• Lela has not been in the top 1000 names in the US for the last 50 years, but it was popular from 1880-1920 or so, peaking at No. 116 on the baby name popularity index in the 1890s.
• Lela (or “Lila”) means the Lilac flower in Farsi (readers, please correct me if that is wrong!)
• “Lela” could also mean “dark beauty” or “dark haired” as it is derived from the Arabic or Persian “Leila” or “Layla,” which is ironic since our little Lela has surprisingly light-colored hair. But, we pronounce her name “Lee-lah” and not “Lay-la”, so that is closer to the Lilac flower origin.

The most famous and beautiful Lela in history: