{"id":38,"date":"2022-05-12T14:15:14","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T18:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/writers-on-writing\/?p=38"},"modified":"2022-05-20T15:21:25","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T19:21:25","slug":"the-noble-lily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/writers-on-writing\/the-noble-lily\/","title":{"rendered":"The Noble Lily"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

by Aline Moreau ’24<\/em><\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
\n

\u201cI always knew what I wanted to name my first child,\u201d my mother told me, a unisex name in Haiti:\u00a0 Valery for a boy or Valerie for a girl. But when it came to her second child, me, she was unsure. As the day of my birth approached, she pondered.<\/p>\n

It appeared as though no name was good enough. (She would later go on to say that a lot of things weren\u2019t good enough for her child.)<\/p>\n

With no good names in mind, she thought of people she loved. She, of course, loved her mother, but wasn\u2019t quite sold on giving me her mother\u2019s name. And when she turned to her aunts and godmother, no name caught her attention. But when she got to her grandmother, it was exactly what she\u2019d been looking for. She had found the perfect name.<\/p>\n

On September 13th, 2002 my mother gave birth to me, a tiny and fragile little thing and said,\u00a0 \u201cAline. That\u2019s her name.\u201d At least that\u2019s what she told others when they asked.<\/p>\n

There came a time when I wondered if my name had any other special meanings. I knew of others who proudly disclosed the meanings of their name. I typed \u201cAline name meaning\u201d into the web browser. As I scrolled through many websites, one common meaning struck me, one specific to\u00a0 the French language, as my name is a decently common French name: \u00a0Noble.\u00a0<\/i>I would later turn to my younger sister with a smile on my face and say, \u201cMy name means noble.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I got older, I earned a few nicknames, the most prevalent being \u201cLilou(e),\u201d a\u00a0 nickname that no one remembers inventing. Nonetheless, it\u2019s well known and well used.<\/p>\n

There would then come a time where I wanted to know the meaning of this nickname, too. \u00a0Lily.\u00a0<\/i>This was what came up most often this time. Lily.\u00a0<\/i>A plant that flowers between spring and fall, not quite knowing what color its petals will reveal. I find it quite fitting for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cManmie,\u201d I called out to my mother, \u201cdid you know that Aline means noble? And that Lilou means lily?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I didn\u2019t. I wasn\u2019t thinking of that when I chose your name but I like it,\u201d my mother replied. \u201cAnd you\u2019ve always been smart. I didn\u2019t need to know the meaning of your name to figure that one out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a noble lily,\u201d I said with a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. My noble lily. Always will be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Aline Moreau ’24 \u201cI always knew what I wanted to name my first child,\u201d my mother told me, a unisex name in Haiti:\u00a0 Valery for a boy or Valerie for a girl. But when it came to her second child, me, she was unsure. As the day of my birth approached, she pondered. It…Read more The Noble Lily<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3782,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonfiction-about-my-name"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/writers-on-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/writers-on-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/writers-on-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/writers-on-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3782"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/writers-on-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/writers-on-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":536,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/writers-on-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/writers-on-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/writers-on-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/writers-on-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}