My Favorite Name

On more than one occasion, someone has asked me what my daughter’s name is, then seemed either a little surprised or very, very pleased with the answer.

Overwhelmingly, the people who have been happy to hear Eve’s name are Christians. They have assumed that I decided to give my daughter a good old-fashioned Biblical name. They don’t realize that I’m an atheist.

Now don’t get me wrong. I do appreciate the Biblical nature of Eve’s name. The mythical Eve was an agitator, an uppity woman; she sought knowledge and truth even when it meant disobeying the greatest known authority. She did not just blindly accept what she was told, and like most revolutionaries, she was punished severely for it.

But my Eve was not named for that mythical mama. Not even close.

When I was younger, I was an X-Phile.  I watched the show faithfully every Friday night (or Sunday, when it moved), and called my best friend (check out her blog! it’s fascinating and naturific!) during every single commercial break to geek out over Scully and Mulder’s latest drama.

My all-time favorite episode is what taught me the word “exsanguinate,” which at 12 years old I used entirely too frequently (I used to be kind of a show-off when it came to big words). That season one episode was centered around a pair of evil homicidal clones, and I used to rent the tape from Blockbuster to watch it over and over.

The name of that episode? Eve, of course. I don’t know if Eve is going to want people to know that she was named after an X-Files episode, or of she would rather they think it Biblical. Either way, I hope that she grows to love her name even half as much as I do.

Tags: eve, name, x-files