Music Monday #9 ~ Cecilia

Today is her first day of junior high.

My little girl is no longer a little girl.

So I thought I would devote my post on this momentous day to her.

Well, to her name actually.

Obviously I am a fan of music in general.

You may be thinking, "who isn't?", but that's where you would be mistaken.

There are different types of musical tastes in this world.

And I'm not talking about genres...rap, country, rock, etc.

I'm talking about being either a casual music fan, a hardcore music fan, or worse yet...a-musical...that is, a life void of music.

I have only ever known of one person to whom the last description applied, but after a few months' exposure to me and my incessantly singing friends, she came around.

I think she had just never been awakened to what music could do for a person.

Anyway, the casual music fan is one of those that will tell you that they "like pretty much all kinds of music", yet can't pinpoint any specifics on favorites or aspects of their liking.

Then there's the hardcore fans.

They KNOW what they like and they KNOW what they don't like.

They can list some of their all-time favorite musicians at a moment's notice and will also list their favorite songs by those artists.

They have either seen their favs in concert or dream of the opportunity (especially if their favs are long gone).

And what point am I trying to make?

I am and always have been...a hardcore music fan.

So when I was a 22 year old pregnant with my first child, I was dead-set on giving her a musical name.

Mostly that meant that she was going to be named after a song.

Actually, "she" was supposed to be a "he" and was going to be named Jonas.

As in "My Name is Jonas"...the Weezer song.

But she had other plans for us all by turning out to be a girl.

Fortunately I had prepared names for either gender.

I still remember where I was when I heard this song....

Driving home from work one day, that song came on the radio.

I had already at some point been enlightened to the meaning of the song.

Many think it is about an actual girl, but "Cecilia" is actually a reference to the patron saint of music, St. Cecilia.

He is singing about his struggle with musical "writer's block" and the frustration of the elusive musical inspiration.

Then "jubilation, she loves me again"...the inspiration flows finally.

So the moment I heard that song that day, I knew that was it.

I hoped it would hold some meaning in her life...that she would embody my love of music somehow.

Well, she loves music, for sure.

But I'm thinking that if there is a patron saint of talking, she should have been given that name instead.

And her middle name?

Oh, I mean names.

2 middle names.

Couldn't narrow it down.

Cecilia Regina Claire

Claire was my mom's suggestion.

And since I was most obsessed with the Latin language at the time, I really loved that it had the Latin meaning of "bright".

Regina (the "g" pronounced like the "g" in good) is Latin for "queen".

But guess what?

It's also a song.
One of my favorite songs.

Sung by The Sugarcubes...Bjork's band before she went solo.

Huge Bjork fan here.

Bjork sang a few songs with female names as the title.

Cecilia could have been Charlene or Regina or Isobel or...well, you get the picture.

Here is the song "Regina" by The Sugarcubes:

So here's to my talkative, musical, bundle of joy.
My junior high pre-teen.
And here's to hoping that she will one day grow to live up to the potential of her hugely important name...or at least not grow tired of telling people that they are pronouncing her Regina wrong. =)