The Baby Name

Dear Baby P,


Your Papa had let me know early on during our first months together, that he wanted to name our future baby boy “Paulo”. My initial reaction was not too joyful, because the name was too common. But I did prefer “Paulo” over “Paolo”.  He wanted “Paulo” because your Papa Big’s name is Paulino. Your Papa wanted to honor your Papa Big, whom both you and I were unfortunately not able to meet. But because the name “Paulo” is too common, I thought of adding something that is of course not too common.

Even during the time when having a family was very far from our plans, your Papa and I had been making up baby names as early as when we were newly dating. I used to have a Friendster blog where I listed all my baby name ideas. I believe I was still in college back then. It just saddens me that the blog feature of Friendster shut down and I was not able to recover my list. But I can still remember the name of our supposed first baby boy in that list. It was “Paulo Zappa”.

The rest of the names were derived from your Papa’s name and mine, plus second names derived from my favorite musicians because I am a musically inclined person. I will reveal them to you while I try to remember them in the meantime.

Your Papa and I were on the same page about what sex we would like our first baby to be. But I was the one who was more firm in wanting to have a baby boy as the first baby. Your Papa liked it too but it didn’t matter to him as long as the baby would be healthy. I was also the firm one in wanting to have a baby girl as a second child. And that was when your Papa and I coined the terms “Baby P” and “Lady P”. These names had long existed years before you were conceived.

In 2009, Volkswagen introduced a new line of minivans called Routan. Part of its web marketing campaign was “Make a Routan Baby”, a feature in the VW website where you would just have to upload photos of the parents’ faces, edit preferences regarding facial features, gender and race, and finally input the baby’s name. I put “Paulo Zappa Serrano”.

The picture that came out was quite funny because of the unlikelihood of a baby having already defined jaw lines. From then on the baby in the picture became the image in my mind of our future baby boy.

Fast forward to the time you were conceived, I had been having strong thoughts that you were going to be a baby boy, and the image of our Routan baby filled my thoughts of you while I was still waiting to meet you in person. But of course, I already had a backup plan just in case our baby would turn out to be a girl.

Your Papa wanted to name our baby girl after his grandmothers Marcella (Papa Big’s mother) and Anselma (Mama Myr’s mother). I was fascinated with the name “Anselma”, so I preferred it to be a second name.

Your Papa was convinced that the baby might be a girl. He told me about a dream he had that the baby was a “Lady P”. I was not really disappointed, but I still could not let go of my strong feeling that you were a baby boy, because what happens in dreams usually becomes the opposite in real life. But I got myself brainstorming for a baby girl’s name, so I came up with “Vinnie Anselma”.

When your Papa’s family in Bicol heard the news about you, your cousins, twins Ate Gela and Ate Geli hoped that you were a baby boy, and were very sure that you would be as handsome as your Papa. I was glad they had the same wishes as mine. Kuya Mic was their only male cousin. That makes four girls (Ate Ding, Ate Che, Ate Geli, Ate Gela) and only one boy. If ever you would become a boy, you would also be the first Baby Boy Serrano!

Your Mama Yin shared a story with me about her pregnancy with your Kuya Mic. Your Papa was still a young boy in that story. Your Papa would talk to your Kuya Mic in Mama Yin’s womb and tell him to come out already so that they could play boxing. When I told your Papa about that story, your Papa recalled his favorite childhood toy which was a boxing figure that he named “Pelikitot”. I was laughing at the name because it sounded funny. From then on, he had the idea of making “Pelikitot” his pet name for you, assuming you were a baby boy.

Your Papa and I shared this baby nickname with your cousins, your Mama Myr, and your Mama Yin. They did recall the toy named “Pelikitot”, and it was easy for them to finally call you “Pelikitot” too! Your Papa also had a backup pet name for a baby girl, it was “Pulinday”.

Of course, your Papa and I know that you would prefer to be called by your friends something else when you grow up. But in the meantime, while we did not know yet what your gender was, we assumed that you were a boy, and fondly called you “Pelikitot”, “Baby P” and “Paulo Zappa”. It was when we finally learned that you were indeed a boy when your Papa thought of adding “Leon” to your first name, in honor of his drummer grandfather Leon (Papa Big’s father). All that’s missing now is for us to finally see you, our beloved Leon Paulo Zappa!