Welcome Socha Sage Jewett Savage!

Our new daughter is named Socha Sage Jewett Savage. She was born at 8:40 pm at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Massachusetts on Thursday, March 22, 2012.  She weighed 6 lbs 14 oz (3.14 kg in metric) and was 20 inches long.

Socha is her first name, Sage and Jewett are her two middle names, and Savage is her last name. 

Socha is pronounced "SO-cha," like "SO what?" and "what-CHA" doing? The accent is on the first syllable.  The spelling and pronunciation of her name is quite clear in Slavic languages (like Slovenian Soča and Bulgarian, where it would be Соча), but it is somewhat more challenging in English, as we lack a letter designated with the "ch" sound.

Where did this odd but beautiful name come from? Her name comes from the Soča river in Slovenia.  The Soča river is the most beautiful river we've ever seen. The waters are crystal clear in a ridiculous minty-green color, reminiscent of the Caribbean. 

Soča River on our trip in July 2011

The river flows out of Triglav National Park, full of outstanding mountains, including the highest in the nation of Slovenia, Mt. Triglav.  We traveled to Slovenia last summer with Hanna Soltow, as the first part of our European road trip. We hiked to the source of the river and also rested our feet in its clear, beautiful waters. Socha was conceived on that summer trip (in either Slovenia, Italy, or Switzerland), and we wanted to connect our daughter to our wonderful years living and traveling throughout Europe. We loved the natural beauty of the Soča River, and were looking for a way to show our passion and appreciation for wildlands. 


According to the Slovenian Tourist Board:

 [The Soča River's] green-blue colour does not fade away completely even [at the sea], as if it would tell us that its heart belongs to the mountains and that is where it reveals itself in all its beauty, childhood liveliness and original purity.

I like that.

Later on, they write:

For people who live by the Soča, this river has a symbolic meaning - somewhere deep within the human spirit it occupies the place of an immortal memorial, representing natural perfection. One could measure the depth of its straits and the breadth of its pools; one can talk about its shades of colours, about its numerous rapids and waterfalls; but it is difficult to capture in rigid and unmoving words its total presence, which is not represented only by the flow of the water, but by its natural environment as well. 

We can simply write that the Soča is beautiful, untouched, pure and perfect in its mountain current. 

As for the middle name of Sage:

Shannon and I met, fell in love, and got married in Montana. We both love the wide open spaces and mountains of the West. To us, sage (Artemesia tridentata and similar species) is the quintessential smell of the American West. We also appreciate the other meaning of the word sage, meaning "having, showing, or indicating profound wisdom." Thank you to Becky Smith for mailing us an unexpectedly large package full of sage cut near Yellowstone National Park. We had her sage plants spread all over the delivery and recovery rooms and the smell was wonderful, keeping us both relaxed through some difficult days.

Shannon in labor with Becky's sage stuck in the IV cart.

Pictures of Socha Sage Jewett Savage will be in our next post. She's pretty darn cute, I'd have to say.