What's in a Name?

Well, rather a lot, actually. I thinks names are important, and we decided we would follow a theme each year for naming the lambs.

Let me backtrack, though, to our first sheep. Mark and I both have M.A.'s in medieval history, so, not surprisingly, we decided to name our new sheep after illustrious medieval women.

The first two ewes we called Heloise and Juliana--after the 12th-century abbess Heloise of the Paraclete, famous lover of the theologian Abelard and Juliana of Liege, the 13th-century nun whose visions inspired the institution of the Feast of Corpus Christi. The second set of ewes we named after Hildegard of Bingen, an abbess, writer, visionary, and composer in the 12th century and Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, a 10th-century Saxon playwright and poet. Below is a picture of Heloise.


We named Hrotsvit's ewe lamb Aurora. The name was not in keeping with our medieval theme, but it seemed appropriate for the first lamb born on our ranch. Hildegard gave birth to twins: Francesco and Clare, named for St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare of Assisi.

The following year, we dubbed the lambs after ancient gods and goddesses, such as Freyja, Minerva, Hermes, and Persephone. We had more than four lambs, but you get the idea.

My mother does genealogy, so the next year we named lambs after some of my ancestors: Thirza, Mehetable, Bernhardt, and Crescenzia, to name a few.

In 2007, we chose names of mountains and mountain ranges, so we had Brenta, Selwyn, Ranier, Sierra, Annapurna, Humphrey, etc. We also had Saphira, named by the kids next door after the dragon in Eragon, since they helped save her life when her mother initially refused to nurse her.

The next year was trees and plants, including Clover, Shamrock, Juniper, Sequoia, and Ficus!

2009 brought us to herbs and spices: Parsley, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Basil, Coriander, Lavender, and Sassafrass. I couldn't decide on a name for the last lamb, an adorable white ram, until a friend suggested Herbie (because of herbs). He's now a year old and still adorable.

This year we selected names of famous people of antiquity, such as Octavian (the lamb was born on January 8), Romulus, Remus, Bouidica, Cleopatra, Nefertiti, Sappho, Sophocles, Zenobia, and Ramses.

Naming is such fun. Feel free to comment on this post and suggest a theme for next year!