So, is it “Carrie and Melina” or “Melina and Carrie”? We’re making an effort not to constantly refer to them as “the twins” like they’re a package deal, although sometimes I call them “the girls”. It seems like the older one should be first, so who would that be?
In the womb, Carrie was measured as five days older. Usually the split that makes a set of identical twins takes place three to eight days after conception, and so the extra baby that resulted was Melina. Carrie is, therefore, the older sister. In the operating room, Melina was born first, a whole minute before Carrie. Melina is, therefore, the older sister.
Shrug.
Now that Melina and Carrie have been with us for two whole weeks, it’s hard to believe that we ever struggled over naming them. It’s as if their names were already decided and we stumbled upon them in some random flash of insight. I was pretty opinionated even from the start, checking the twin website suggestions and rejecting every pair as too matchy-matchy (Madison and Madelyn) or too gimmicky (Heaven and Nevaeh—no twin wants to be their twin spelled backwards!!). We also rejected anything we liked that sounded too much like Devon. Megan was an early favorite, but we decided that calling one name or the other out the back door could get confusing. Craig also wouldn’t abide anything that would be abbreviated for daily use, so he rejected Annabelle (Annie for short).
We thought the name Carrie had an heirloom classiness. We went with the old-fashioned spelling, like the little girl on Little House on the Prairie. The double-r’s in the middle were an easy mnemonic; the twin on the right became Carrie. She looks most like pictures of Mommy when she was born. So far, she is the thinker, curling her hands around her face to contemplate life.
Her stock expression is a little Oh! of surprised pleasure. Oh! she says, pinwheeling her arms good naturedly. Milk? Daddy? Blanket? For me?
Melina is a slightly unusual name, and that was important to us. Only a teacher truly appreciates how hard it is to have eight Will’s and seven Hannah’s in one junior class. We wanted both the twins to have fairly rare names. I had only one Melina in nine years of teaching. We thought it went well with Carrie while still sounding distinct.
Melina is living up to her womb reputation as the more active twin, though she weighed just under five pounds at birth. In the hospital she was the first to stretch out her legs, and we’ll often find her sleeping straight as a board, looking a bit like she’s levitating.
She looks most like pictures of Devon when he was born.
Sometimes I even think she looks a bit like Ally kitty.
Her stock expression is a wide mouthed smile, like she’s laughing at a well-told joke. Hah!
So, Carrie and Melina stood out on our short list because they sounded good together. Then, we looked them up and discovered that they both mean “song”. Carrie is an English name, a form of Carol. Melina is a Hebrew name, a form of Melody. That decided it. Their names are related but not obnoxious in their sameness. Our girls are free to be individuals, not part of a matched set, and hopefully that will make them feel close to each other.
So far, we call them by their names and occasionally by one set of nicknames. A relative made beautiful embroidered blankets for the girls, one with a moon motif and one with a cloud. So, they are occasionally Carrie-Cloud and Melina-Moon. Yes, we still avoid most nicknames, but we're sure that they are unlikely to be called "Moon" and "Cloud" by their friends at school.
Devon is Celtic and means “Bard”, a kind of travelling singer/songwriter, so all three names go together well.
Since I don’t know whether they’ll be Carrie and Melina or Melina and Carrie for the long term, I try to mix it up. When I go in to get them, I sing them "The Carrie and Melina Song":
Carrie and Melina
Melina and Carrie
Now it is time to feed (change, dress, burp…)
Carrie and Meli-NAH!
One last shot-- Melina and Carrie know Kung Fu!
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