We’ve just filled out and sent away the official “application” for the baby’s name, which reminded me that I’ve been meaning to address all the questions we’ve been getting regarding our choice. As I’ve probably mentioned before, Olof and I don’t always have the easiest time coming to agreement where baby names are concerned. The usual pattern goes something like this: I suggest a beautiful/charming/sweet name and he vetoes it out of hand; I ask him for suggestions of his own and he is unable to come up with anything. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Because we had a girl last time, we still had an unused boy’s name that we hadn’t changed our minds about, so at least the agony was limited to finding a girl’s name. One of my top suggestions was a name I have loved for years, Bryony, but Olof was having none of it. Not being so willing to let go of it this time as I had been in the past, I turned to the interweb in hopes of finding something similar but more acceptable to my husband. It didn’t take me long to come up with Brynja, a fine old Norse name, reasonably popular in Iceland but more or less unheard of in Sweden.

Or, I should say, it’s unheard of as a name in Sweden; as a noun it’s rather more familiar, particularly the slang usage, which is one of these shirts. A real brynja is armor, one of these, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is considerably cooler. In any case, it actually is a name, as well, though I’m discovering that most Swedes will shake their heads in disbelief upon hearing it. As luck would have it, however, the man I married is not “most Swedes,” and he was on board for Brynja from the moment I suggested it.

The baby’s middle names are Astrid and Eivor. She’s the only one of the kids to have three names, but I really loved the way the they sounded together, so we went with it. Astrid is a familiar Scandinavian name that I’ve always liked the sound of; you’ll probably remember it as the name of Pippi Longstocking’s “mother.” Last, but most certainly not least, Eivor is my mother-in-law’s name. For readers who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Olof’s mom in person, let me be the first to say that you’re missing out. She is truly one of the best people I’ve ever known, and without a doubt the best mother-in-law on Earth. Really, she should give lessons to every prospective mother-in-law — she’s that good. If we’re able to raise her namesake to be half the woman she is, we will have done our jobs well.