Day 1: On my name

AJK: What’s your name? Why were you named this and who decided? What does it mean? What about nicknames?

When my older sister was born, my father had a deep bonding moment with her. He speaks of her eyes being big and open, silently looking up into his as he held her.

When I was birthed, I was quickly placed aside on a tray so the birthing team could tend to my mother’s safety and a retained placenta. It’s said I was crying so strongly I turned every shade of pink and purple. As my father watched from the other side of the glass, a line from “Elizabeth” by The Statler Brothers played in his mind, triggered by his sense of longing to hold me. Now I share a song with Elizabeth Taylor.

My mother selected my middle name Renée, created from her grandmother’s name, Renata. It means rebirth (theme of my adult life!).

It was only my father that called me Isabeau as a child. Isabeau comes from Ladyhawke, a medieval adventure role portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer and I’m in love with the tale: Lovers Navarre and Isabeau secretly wed. The jealous Bishop places the couple under a curse which turns Isabeau into a hawk by day and Navarre a wolf by night. Always together, the curse keeps them eternally apart until a solar eclipse breaks the spell.