As both of you who read this already know, I am going to be a father.  And last week we learned that she is a girl, which came as not surprise to me.  I have known that it was going to be a girl since before conception, since we started trying.  In my world of doubt and uncertainty and non-absolutes, this was something I KNEW.  I cant really explain it, be even more certain than any belief in a god, I believed I was to father a little girl.
With this knowledge, I have been searching for my daughters name for years.  The steady stream of media input I take in, TV, movies, books and audio, all have provided potential names. NPR corrispondants names are a wealth of potentials, especially the names like Lourdes Garcia-Navarro or Ofeibea Quist-Arcton. But when I was listing to Assimov's Foundation Trilogy, I found the name, Jezebel.  OMG, you are thinking, how can he do that!!  Or, good name, but...  If it weren't for Betty Davis making her into a hussy in the 1930's, I think it would fly.  Here is a strong-willed, independent woman who knows how to get what she wants.  Yeah, my kind of girl!
My wife, of course, is totally against this name.  "She will be beat up in school, or worse!" she claims.  I hate to think we still live in times where bullying is allowed, kids are made fun of for their shape, size, color or names.  I know growing up the closest I ever came to getting in a fight in all the years of school was one day on the bus defending my sister who was the focus of some white-trash red-necks peppering her with racial slurs, and i suppose not much has changed, at least for the better, in the 30 years since then.  And maybe she will get some unwanted evilness flung her way, but will gain strength though it.  Like Johnny Cash's A Boy Named Sue.
So I will lose this battle, She will be named Rowan or something out-of-the-top-1000-names list, but will always be Jezebel to me.  She will grow up to change the world, making it a better place.  Her influence will be as legendary as the name... at least in my world.