ISLA SLOAN
I first came across the name Isla when the actress Isla Fisher became popular with the release of Wedding Crashers several years ago. I'll be the first to admit that I mispronounced it and said "Ee-slah" (Spanish pronunciation) rather than the correct "Eye-lah" (Scottish pronunciation). "Huh," I thought. "That's a pretty cool name." I loved the meaning behind it (it's the name of a Scottish island) and it wasn't long before I decided that if I ever had a daughter, that would be her name.
Jonathan and I have always discussed baby names and I mentioned the name Isla to him shortly before we got pregnant the first time. Something you should know about Jon is that he has strong name associations. Pretty much every name I had suggested to him in the past he had some sort of negative connotation with it. I knew I had him with Isla! I mean really, how many Isla's do you know?
Happily, Jonathan loved the name Isla as much as I did. He, too, thought it was gorgeous and he couldn't find any negative association with it. Additionally, the name Isla wasn't overused. Popularity was one of our major considerations for a name. We wanted something unique but not totally off the wall and Isla fits that bill perfectly. Sure, she'll probably have to deal with mispronunciations, but as Jonathan and I concluded, any name can be mispronounced. You have no idea how many times I get called Kathy instead of Katie!
The biggest reason we knew Isla was the name for our baby? It pays homage to our love of the islands and it was important for us to give her a name that really means something to us. I've already taken her to the beach in our community and we can't wait to take her on a real island adventure! We hope she grows up loving the water and sand between her toes as much as we do. We capped it off with the middle name Sloan (my maiden name) in honor of my family roots since both she and I (and Jonathan, of course) share his last name. She's such a little Isla Sloan and we can't imagine her with any other name.
