Dear Swistle,

I must be completely honest: I am writing to you for reassurance, which may seem silly, and I understand if there’s not much to say. But I love your advice, and generally find your logical approach to highly emotional problems very calming. I wrote to you in May at the early stages of my second pregnancy in a panic about possible girls’ names, but sadly miscarried. Thankfully this letter was NOT posted, as I would have been even more sad getting advice when the pregnancy had not worked out. The gist of my (very) long letter at that time was that I wanted a name that had a story behind it that was somehow connected to family. For multiple reasons, a flower name made sense but I couldn’t pick one from our short list. Well, since becoming pregnant again my husband and I have settled on a name that was not even on our original list: Iris. The “rainbow” meaning and flower connection ticks the boxes for us. We love how it is a simple, straight-forward, relatively nickname proof name, easily spelled and pronounced, and relatively uncommon. Our first child is named Pearl, after her great-grandmother Margaret whose name means “pearl.” I think the two go nicely together. We have had our boy’s name picked out for some time, it is an unusual and short Scandinavian name connected to my Dad, and we are 100% settled on that.

Unfortunately, I am now feeling doubts about Iris. I think my problem is insanity and hormones, but… Iris is the name of my mother’s current boss. This is not a terrible association, but still feels a bit weird. I have met this woman very briefly a long time ago, and she seemed nice. I honestly forgot her name altogether, until two weeks after we chose the name and my Mother casually mentioned her boss. My mother does not dislike her, but I worry my Mother may react oddly to the name and not really like it, which feels important to me. I also have this weird obsession with looking at all the other famous Iris’s in the world and in history, and don’t really feel connected to any of them. This is nuts, I know, but I remember liking the book “The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck and knowing that my literature loving mother would appreciate that reference, which she did. I cannot and will not talk to my mother about this- my husband have an iron-clad policy that we do NOT discuss names with family prior to naming, for many reasons, and frankly the risk is too high- if she DOES say that she doesn’t like the name, I have nothing else. Once the baby is here, there’s no going back. If my Mother doesn’t like the name, I believe in my heart she will still understand why we chose it and gradually come to love both the association of the name with her granddaughter and all of the thought we put into the name.

I think another part of my anxiety is that my baby is breech, which was only confirmed two weeks ago. The doctors tried to turn him or her with External Cephalic Version, and it didn’t work. Now I have ten days until a planned Caesarian which I am very comfortable with, but I only finished work today and am suddenly highly anxious about having a fixed deadline to have everything ready. I really thought I had more time, which is of course ridiculous as babies can be born at any time, but when I didn’t KNOW the date I could just assume I would be closer to my due date (I will be 39 weeks along for the Caesarian). With our first daughter I went into labour on my due date at 40 weeks and had her the day after by vaginal delivery. So now I am reading everything about Caesarians, and wondering about all of the after care for that, and what I need to bring to the hospital, or purchase for when I home from the hospital, etc. Unfortunately, I feel like everyone is telling me horror stories about birth in general, babies being stolen from hospitals (yes, really, one woman told me a horror story TODAY as I was getting blood taken- do people have no heart?), etc. So am now feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and having cold feet about all of my choices, including the girl’s name. There is no other name Swistle. I know, because I have now spent over a year in serious, daily pursuit of THE MAGICAL PERFECT GIRL BABY NAME and this is what we have. And I AM happy with it, but still feel on edge.

What I am hoping for is that you can give my anxieties a stern talking to, a “snap out of it crazy pregnant lady” lecture. And maybe some advice about Caesarian birth, and how 10 days is plenty of time to feel prepared, and how everything is going to be fine. Thanks for listening, Swistle. Would greatly appreciate any advice.

All my best,

Natalie

I am rather late to this, as your c-section date is now only three days away. But I am here now and ready with the reassurances!

FIRST. You have thoroughly searched for a name. You have found an excellent solid beautiful choice with special meaning for you, and it goes well with your first child’s name. High-five me: you have done great and you are all set. I believe this to be cold feet and nothing more. It’s okay about your mom’s boss: if your mom hated her boss and ranted about her all the time, that would be one thing; I think in this situation it’s going to work out fine.

SECOND. C-sections. All of mine were born that way, and I am a fan. I found the first one much harder than the others, because it happened after labor and I was so tired and everything was unfamiliar. The scheduled ones were…well, I don’t want to oversell it, but I would recommend it to anyone. If I’m remembering correctly, the first 24 hours afterward you stay in bed with the epidural and IV for pain management. It would be really good if someone could stay overnight with you to help with changing the baby’s diaper and bringing the baby to and from its bassinet, but with all but our first baby Paul stayed home with the other kid(s) and I was able to manage with the nurses’ help. Then the next morning they take all that IV/epidural stuff out and you switch to oral medication, and they boot you out of bed; it will feel as if you should NOT stand up with your tum feeling that way, but trust the nurses (and Swistle) that you can, and that you will feel better the more you move around. And then you will have the best shower of your life and the nurses will start to plead with you to come out and you will say sorry no.

THIRD. Getting ready. As an anxious person, I rely pretty heavily on Coping Thoughts. My Coping Thought for getting ready for a baby to come home was that everything DOESN’T have to be ready ahead of time. With my first, I went into labor at 37 weeks 6 days, the morning after I’d finally gone out to buy a car seat. But if I HADN’T gotten that car seat in time, Paul could have gone out to get one while I was in the hospital. If we hadn’t already gotten a crib, he could have gotten that too. Or we could have put the baby in a cardboard box for a few weeks until we had time to go out and let me evaluate the pros and cons of every single crib on the market. If I’d somehow forgotten all about diapers, we could have stopped at Target on the way home from the hospital. If I’d somehow forgotten clothes and blankies, we could have wrapped the baby in a pillowcase or one of our t-shirts while Paul went to the store. It isn’t a deadline as much as it’s an arrival time: arrangements can continue afterward.

It’s even more relaxed with the post-C-section supplies: lots of women don’t know in advance they’re going to have a C-section, so they don’t buy anything ahead of time and have to send someone else out for it once they realize they need it. You’ll need some pads and some giant pads; my hospital sent me home with a big package of each. Some of the pads are for postpartum bleeding; some are to place between the incision and your underwear, to keep the incision dry and protected. Your OB may also tell you to buy a few over-the-counter medications; it has been awhile, but I think mine specified a certain type of stool softener and a certain type of pain killer (I was going to say which ones, but suddenly that seems like a poor idea: recommendations may have changed in the last ten years). My OB also gave me a small prescription for narcotics; if you can fill that at the hospital pharmacy so you can bring it home with you and no one has to go back out for it after you get home, I highly recommend it (and get one last dose of oral painkiller at the hospital before you leave to go home, to bridge the gap). Also, I recommend loose comfy pants; I wore pajama pants for a week or two because I didn’t want anything pressing where the incision was. And I had a Boppy pillow; those can be particularly nice for keeping the baby away from the incision.

Comparing my C-section recovery with my friends’ non-C-section recoveries, I’d say one difference is that it takes longer after a C-section to be comfortably up and about: I spent a lot of time in a recliner, and I slept in the recliner at night for awhile. If you want to channel energy into something productive ahead of time, I recommend cooking/freezing meals and doing any cleaning that you can still do around your tum, and making plans/arrangements for other people to handle cooking/cleaning for awhile after the birth.

I hope people who have had a C-section more recently than I have can fill out some more details on things that can be purchased/arranged ahead of time.

Update!

Hello Swistle,

Thank you so much to you and your readers for all your kind advice and reassurance. The caesarean birth was fine- everything people said was true. The shower afterwards was definitely a highlight! I used the pain killers early and often and was able to get on my feet the next day. The nurses were brilliant overnight and we managed fine. And as it turns out, we had a baby boy! His name is a short, uncommon Scandinavian name in honour of my Swedish Dad, who is thrilled. (For identifying purposes we wish to keep the name under wraps). Thanks again!

All my best,

Natalie

Are you having trouble commenting, here and/or on the personal blog? The good news is, it isn’t just you. The bad news is, this has been going on for quite some time, and although I am married to a guy who knows his way around the innards of a computer program, I’m in the role of the shoemaker’s wife who has no shoes. No, it’s the shoemaker’s children who have no shoes. Does no one give a thought to the shoemaker’s wife and her shoes? Maybe the expression involves the shoemaker’s whole family. I could look it up, but we’re having such a nice time.

Anyway, I would like to give the shoemaker a little poke in the ribs on the subject of the hole in my shoes, so I would like to do a poll. If you also can’t use the poll, email me: swistle at gmail dot com. Or you can tell me on Twitter.

…Wait. I can’t use the poll either. Because everything looked fine with it, but when I tried to vote it said “an error occurred” and didn’t register the vote. We will have to do freeform answers in the comments section. WAIT. We cannot do that! Because the comments section is what we are having trouble with.

*deep breath* Okay. Here is what we are going to do. If you are having trouble with the comments section sometimes but not always, leave a comment in the comments section if possible, telling me what’s going on. If you can’t use the comments section at all, email me or @ me on Twitter (whenever I say “at me on Twitter” I mentally add finger guns and a chk-chk sound, so add those to your mental picture of this exchange) and tell me what kind of problem it is. Is it timing out or resetting while you’re composing a comment? Is it acting as if it posted the comment, all except for the part where the comment gets posted? Does the comment appear not to post, but then it shows up later? Is the whole comment area is failing to load, so that there appear to be no comments and no way to leave a comment? Does it help to force-reload the page (on my Mac this is done by holding down shift and command and, while they’re still down, pressing R)? And tell me any other details that seem relevant—for example, is it happening on your phone but not on your desktop, or vice versa? It it happening every time or just sometimes? And so on.

Update on Boy/Girl Twin Babies Kim-with-an-L

It’s here! Oh happy day! 2016 Social Security Administration Baby Name Data

Do you see anything you find surprising? Anything you thought would happen, and it did? Anything interesting? What did your kids’ names do, or the names you’re considering for future kids? (You don’t have to say what the specific names are, of course.)

Dear Swistle: You’ve helped me name two of my kids: the oldest and the youngest! Middle, as per usual, named himself. I’m done ​having children so I never in a bajillion years thought I’d be writing to you again. Here’s the thing, though. Marina Lynn, (our youngest, now four months old) though she’s obviously a Marina, has gotten a nickname, pronounced REE REE. The nickname came about as we watched her smile and giggle at us. It just stuck! “Hi REE REE!” we say. I think I started it. But now that this nickname is gaining traction I don’t know how to spell it. Is it Ree Ree or is it a RiRi or a Reeree or a Riri? Honestly? I don’t like any of the spellings! None of them jump out at me. And then I panic a little bit! Why didn’t I predict this contingency? What will we dooooooooo? I would ditch the nickname except for the fact that it’s sticking. Just heard my middle child call her Riri. (RiRi, Ree Ree, Reeree). Why am I panicking about this? Oh, I don’t know! Why do name freak-er outers freak out about names? THAT MUST BE THE REASON. I guess I’m feeling pressure to pick a spelling that is the BEST spelling in case it sticks all the way to high school. I thought you might be interested in tackling the subject of nicknames for a second and musing about it. And maybe, just maybe, we could do a poll?

I vote for not deciding now. The child is four months old; if the nickname sticks around long enough for her to need a consistent spelling for it, she will pick what she likes. So many babies have baby-talk nicknames along the lines of Ree-ree, Nee-nee, Sissy, La-la, Boo-boo bear, etc., and most of those nicknames drop by the wayside, or are only used in spoken language—or, if they need to be used in writing, the chosen spelling evolves. Ree Ree may be very temporary, or maybe she’ll grow up and be known to all as Ree, but at this point I would say there is no need for any of these three things: (1) panic, (2) regret, (3) a final decision. Let Marina handle this one if needed, when she’s old enough to do so. If you find you need a written form before then, pick your least-disliked of the ones you don’t like. I personally am a fan of Ree Ree, but I think it matters approximately zero at this point.

If I had to guess, my guess is that you are panicking about this because you have three young kids and one of them is a tiny baby. There is probably quite a bit of life-rearranging and adjustment going on right now, and probably not very much sleep. I think too that baby-name people tend to be PLANNERS, and we don’t like SURPRISES with the names we choose. If it makes you feel better to figure out a spelling, then I say continue to work on it—but it sounds like it’s making you feel worse. I don’t know if it will work for you, but one of my own favorite Coping Thoughts (it will not surprise you, I think, to learn that I frequently struggle with this exact type of panic/regret/must-decide-NOW situation) is “It’s okay to let this continue for now without a decision.” It would be absolutely fine to spell it an assortment of ways for now, and let a favorite spelling emerge with time.

Hello Swistle,

I am having the hardest time deciding on a name for our precious baby girl, arriving August 2017. She will be joining her big brother, 2 year old Jackson Wyatt (H)oode with a G.
I know this is my last child and will be my only girl, so I feel so much pressure to give her a name I would want as an adult (and as a child), that is unique but not weird, somewhat Southern but not overly girly, feminine but with an edge, and strong.
I have an aversion to names like Amelia, Olivia, etc. I guess I just am not into the old fashioned, super girly names.
I fell in love with the name Britton when I saw a little girl on the beach with the name monogrammed on her towel. I have tried a couple of Community chat boards and I have been shocked at the horrid people on there and how harshly they criticized it. They hated that it was a boy name for a girl (which I happen to LOVE), and a few of them claimed it was stupid to spell it BRITTON because that is just misspelling the country Britain. I don’t want it to have anything to do with the country, I just love the way it sounds.
So in the same fashion, I am attracted to Leighton and Cameron as well. Cameron seems like a safer bet, but I still really love it. I definitely don’t want something super popular. Jackson was more popular than I thought it would be, but it is my husband’s middle name and a family name for him. My husband’s name is a short name that starts with a B, and my name is Monica Jean (kinda country I know!)

Other names that have been in my list but have recently been eliminated due to how they sound with my simple one syllable last name of Hoode (with a G), are Blake and Beau.
I definitely can’t call a girl Beau Hoode (G) (sounds like No Good) ha!! That would be a terrible self fulfilling prophecy!
I am set in the middle name of Elizabeth, my mother’s mother was Mary Elizabeth, and we have already honored my husband’s side of the family, so I want something for my side.
And, It’s just such a beautiful name!

So as of now my short list includes

Britton Elizabeth

Cameron Elizabeth

Leighton Elizabeth

I have really enjoyed finding your blog and I can’t wait to hear your suggestions!!

Sincerely,

Monica

Ah, yes, I am familiar with the name boards. I first encountered them when pregnant with the twins: I joined a more general group for people who were due the same month as me, but my favorite place was the NAME area. People could ask name questions, and other people could weigh in! There was VOTING! It was thrilling!

But you know how this ends: soon I noticed the comments sections of those areas were snake pits. A few people were weighing in thoughtfully and giving careful, kind opinions that showed a full understanding that “not a name I personally am planning to choose” was not even remotely the same as “name that no one should choose”, but a huge percentage of the audience was there to do harm on purpose for fun. Another huge percentage of the audience was there to attack the attackers. Every question devolved into a squall. Wait, not squall. What’s the word I’m thinking of that’s not squall? Never mind, I’ll think of it.

Anyway, I never went back to that part of the internet. And when I started this blog, I had one major goal: no snake pit. And I suggest staying away from snake pits in general: if I remember correctly, and I absolutely do, they harshly criticize LITERALLY EVERY NAME UNDER THE SUN. This is because they are not actually there to discuss names, they are there to rip names apart. Find you an audience who can tell the difference, whether that’s us or whether that’s supportive friends/family. No snakes.

Oh: brawl. Brawl is the word I was trying to think of. Not squall.

So, to start with, Britton is not a misspelling of Britain unless that’s what someone intends it to be. It could be a misspelling or alternate spelling of Briton (someone who comes from Britain), but my guess is that it comes from the accurate spelling of the surname and/or from lengthening the name Britt. There are many names that come into existence through various or uncertain means. And in any case, Britton is a name: in 2015 it was given to 78 new baby girls and 106 new baby boys.

It hits my ear as a fresh snappy update of Brittany, and I love the nickname Britt. It sounds to me like it’s your top choice, and I think it goes very well with what you’re looking for in a name. The “embroidered beach towel” test is a great one: one of the names we ended up using got bumped way up on the candidate list after I saw it written on a drawing in a kindergarten classroom.

If you like Blake but find it too abrupt with the surname, I wonder if you’d like Blakely? Or Lakelyn? Or Lakelyn makes me think of Locklyn.

Readers may feel here as if they’re having deja vu: I used these same suggestions in a recent post. And as long as I’m doing that, let me suggest Delaney: I think it goes very well with what you’re hoping for here, and it has cute nicknames like Del and Laney. And Brinley is nice. Or Kinsley, Everly, Ellery, or Ellison. (Normally I wouldn’t do two posts in a row with similar style, but I got all worked up about the chat boards.) More names to consider:

Finley
Hollis
Linley
Madigan
Peyton
Quincy
Rooney
Teagan

But my vote is for Britton.

Hi Swistle,

I’ll love you forever if you can help me name my newborn baby boy. He’s 5 days old, awfully cute, and nameless. We left the hospital without a name! I didn’t know you could do that. Officially, he’s Baby Boy Papadopoulos until we sort it out.

So, last name is Papadopoulos. My husband is Greek-American, which means we have a naming tradition to deal with. Per tradition, we are supposed to name our first born son and daughter after the father’s parents. My husband and I have differing memories of how much this was actually discussed before we got married & pregnant with our first. (He remembers bringing it up once. I’m disputing that it ever came up at all. At the very least, we had no agreement on the matter.)

We actually have a daughter and, before she was born (as in, right before!) I agreed to use his mom’s name, Eleni. It wasn’t in my top 50 list, but it’s not bad. So I agreed to it, but on the condition that I could name the next child. We’re only having two kids and I want to follow the American tradition called ‘Naming the kids whatever the hell you want and the grandparents will probably hate it but oh well you can’t please everyone.’

Still, I wanted him to at least like the name. When we found out we were having a boy, I threw out a bunch of names to him: Matthew, Miles, Milo, James, Mark, Martin, Theodore, Gregory and many more I can’t even remember now in my postpartum haze. He hemmed and hawed and shot each one down for one reason or another. He just really wants to use his dad’s name Steven.

Steven’s not a bad name. I lucked out as far as Greek daughters-in-law go. Some Greek boy names are totally unworkable. Anyway, I don’t hate Steven. I’m not in love with the phonetics of it (too many e’s) and I don’t like that there are two equally probable spellings (Steven vs. Stephen). I dislike the nickname Steve. And I’d hate to again settle for an OK name just to make the in-laws happy. Especially since we had an agreement in place this time.

On the other hand, it feels wrong to just choose a name myself. He’s hated (or claims to anyway) all of my choices. We can do the father’s name for the middle name, the Christening name. Hell, I’m even fine with the in-laws calling him Steven as a nickname. I just don’t like it enough to agree to it as a first name and not feel defeated and angry.

Please help a sleepless, emotional, postpartum mom of a nameless infant think rationally.

Many thanks

You ARE thinking rationally. It is your husband we need to fix.

1. It was decided that your children will have your husband’s family surname.
2. It was decided that your husband would get to use his naming tradition for your first child.
3. In exchange, it was decided that you would get your way on the next child’s name.

But now your husband really wants to name the child after his own dad, again following his own family’s naming tradition. Here is the problem: he has not fully, deep-down realized that is not going to happen. Instead, he is comparing every name you suggest to the name in his mind, which is his dad’s name. He is making you do all the work of finding a name he likes better—which is NOT the task at hand. The task at hand is for him to agree to one of your top choices, as last time you agreed to his.

Step one: Your husband needs to toss out the name Steven, and FULLY DEEP-DOWN UNDERSTAND that it is tossed out. It’s over. It’s not happening. The way he’s clinging to that name is directly responsible for the way the two of you are unable to name this child. He can’t really consider the other names until he reframes the decision from “Do I like this name better than my idea for the name?” to “Which of the non-Steven names do I like?”

Step two: Of the names that are at the top of your list, your husband needs to choose his favorite. I don’t believe he really does hate all your choices; I believe he is saying he hates them to force you to give in to using his father’s name, whether or not he realizes that’s what he’s doing. Make a list of your top five choices. Ten if you’re feeling generous. He may choose one. That will be the child’s name.

You say it feels wrong to just choose a name yourself, but your husband is not having a similar internal struggle: he did that very thing for your first child’s name, and now he wants to do it again for your second child’s name. You guys had a deal, and now he’s saying actually, no, he would prefer to choose both children’s names himself. Well, of COURSE he would. And so would you. But that is not the way co-parenting works. Certainly he can give final approval to the name, as you gave final approval to his choice, but you let him pick a name that was NOT EVEN IN YOUR TOP FIFTY and now it is his turn. He will honor his part of the deal or I will personally come and shake him until his teeth rattle.

Hello Swistle!! I’m a long time listener, first time caller!! Excited to seek your help, you are really the best.

I am 7 months into my second pregnancy, with boy/girl twins due late July. My wife and I have a 2 year old daughter called Mila Lou. Our last name is hyphenated and sounds like Lakeman-Foley.

Right now our finalists are Romy and Joaquin. We both love Romy, and are 99% sure our girl will definitely be Romy, but have no clue re MNs for her. Joaquin poses a bit more of a problem. We looove the name, but am unsure about having one child with a name that is more overtly Spanish than the others. I am of Spanish origin (Argentina specifically) and speak Spanish, but my wife does not, and we speak English around the house—though I do speak a little bit of Spanish with Mila, and my parents speak to her exclusively in Spanish. I love the Spanish pronunciation of Joaquin, don’t love the very harsh American “woh-keen” sound. I’d also like to call him Joaqui “hwahh-kee”, but fear it would turn into “walkie” in English. My brother and I both have Spanish names that are pretty in Spanish but eh in English… his name is Santiago nn Santi and he grew up being “Sohn-tee”/”Sohn-tee-oh-go” which I find not nice sounding. Same with me—Clara (Clah-ra) became Claire-uh in English.

It feels somewhat important to me to have slightly bilingual names—I would feel strange having a child called Lauren or Andrew or something really American sounding… I think it would feel like I was erasing my heritage. Mila felt like a really good choice for us because the pronunciation is almost exactly the same in English and Spanish. That would be ideal, but is hard to come by.

I digress. Anyway, at present we have a short list of names we both like, but would love to be introduced to new names and expand that list. The names are—Julian, Julius, Simon, Samson, Rowan, Leo for a boy, and Magdalena/Leni, Francesca/Frances for a girl.

We’d like to find first/middle combinations we like that go well with each other and with Mila Lou. I’m really interested in learning about other names that we may like based on those!! Not exactly sure how to categorize our “naming style” but maybe you will know!

Thanks, Swistle!!

Warmly,
Clara

This is the kind of question I just ITCH to answer, but I lack all the important qualifications: I don’t know how names are pronounced in Spanish, or what the common mispronunciations might be, or how those mispronunciations would sound to someone who knew the right way.

However, I do know from past comments sections that we have MANY commenters with experiences in exactly those things, and so I post this for them.

I will vote on a few things before I go:

1. The name Joaquin does stand out to me in that sibling group as being distinctly more Spanish. However, with Mila and Romy I think you may have hit upon a Happy Assortment sibling group: that is, it isn’t that Mila and Romy are the same style and Joaquin is different, it’s that all three are different from each other.

2. I think part of the package deal of the name Joaquin would be the spelling/pronunciation issues. I referred the other day to Joaquin Phoenix (I pronounced it kind of like Hwah-keen) and Paul had no idea who I was talking about until I spelled the first name. When Paul and I were expecting Henry, we considered the name Thijs (pronounced Tice, to rhyme with mice or dice): we’re both of Dutch origin (his grandparents spoke it fluently), and we liked the sound—but we decided we didn’t want the package deal of spelling and pronouncing it all the time, and so we put it on the list of potential middle names. But plenty of other families decide to take on the whole package deal and they make it work.

3. From your list of other candidates, I like both girl options: Magdalena and Francesca are a lot longer/fancier than Mila, but the nicknames make them more compatible (I might go with Frannie or Frankie for Francesca). I also like all the boy options.

4. For the twins, I particularly like the pairing Romy and Leo. Mila, Romy, and Leo seem like a very nice sibling group, and I like how the twins would share the long-O sound. I also like Romy with Julian or Julius.

5. Did you choose the middle name Lou as an honor name, or for sound? Since you don’t mention the former, I will assume the latter. In that case, with Romy I like: Romy Mae, Romy Kay, Romy Fay, Romy Laine, Romy Jane, Romy Joy, Romy Jean. For Leo I like Leo Joaquin best. Mila Lou, Romy Jane, and Leo Joaquin is my top group. I like that the twins’ names have subtle connections: the matching long-O sound of the first names, and then both with the middle initial J.

Update on Baby Boy or Girl -eadows-with-an-M, Sibling to John Walker (J.W.)

Update (and photo) on Baby Girl Davis, Sister to Esther