#and i pray tht the purpose will show itself soon

[sexysilverstrider]

i am filled with disgust. with hatred. with vile revolt against zionists. against the people who see this as 'both sides'. against people who turn a blind eye and ignore what palestinians are going through. i hate hate hate. i can only pray that the palestinians and people in gaza are safe. i pray that at least their souls rest in peace. it hurts. it hurts and i can only pray and spread the word. but to also know that i CAN pray and CAN spread the word is more than enough in my part is what keeps me going to do this. please learn. please unlearn and relearn. please have some sense of humanity. please may these innocent souls find peace and may the damned rot in the deepest parts of hell.

[carolrance]

What’s in a name? Nichole.

So, like, I see a lot about “Why did Serena name ‘her’ baby Nichole?” Most people see it as her making it about Nick: either she is doing it to spite Nick to remind him he’s not going to be allowed to be a father, or to spite Fred that Nick’s the real daddy. Sure. That’s very possible knowing what we do about Serena.

But I was sitting there trying to figure it out myself cos something didn’t seem right about the name itself. If you note: All the names of the newborn babies (and all the wives?) are biblical, inspired by the bible, saints, vaguely religious in origin, or common in Christian use. Eden, Serena Joy, Naomi, Angela, Grace... sensing a theme? (The wives, well, we can’t really put too much thought into that cos likely those are names from before anyway. It’s also worth mentioning perhaps Hannah is a name found in the bible as well, but she’s given a new name Agnes. Lydia is also found in the bible as the first ever convert to Christianity. Janine is religious. Obvs Luke is biblical.)

But Nicole rang a bit weird with Angela (”angel”), Agnes (very well-known saint, patron of young girls), and Grace* (duh) cos I couldn’t help thinking, “What does Nicole have to do with any sort of religious imagery or theme?” You’d think Super Pious Super Wife Serena Joy would want a Super Pious Baby Name. Something like Esther, Ruth, Faith, Johanna, Rebecca, Sarah, Charity, etc etc. But she goes for Nichole, which yes, is the feminine form of Nicholas.

Now, there’s Nick. That’s the superficial and probably most obvious reason. But if we want to dig just a little...

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of, amongst a lot of things, children. If you can’t conceive, you pray to St. Nicholas. That’s also why you see a lot of child care facilities named after him. (He’s also the origin of Santa Claus, which is like if you played Broken Telephone for a thousand years. The original St. Nick has nothing to do with Christmas. But he was very generous with his wealth.)

And there is actually a “Saint Nicole” (Nicolette), although she is known commonly as Saint Colette.

Her contemporary biographers say that her parents had grown old without having children, before praying to Saint Nicholas for help in having a child. Their prayers were answered when, at the age of 60, Marguerite gave birth to a daughter. Out of gratitude, they named the baby after the saint to whom they credited the miracle of her birth. She was affectionately called Nicolette by her parents, which soon came to be shorted to Colette, by which name she is known.

You can see the allusion to Nick, right? It’s so obvious the connection. So, other than calling her Nichole out of spite towards Nick (or not JUST spite lol), it’s possible it’s out of gratitude? Towards both St. Nicholas and possibly Nick.

Also, like her namesake from 1000 years earlier, St. Colette...

...is invoked by childless couples desiring to become parents, and is also the patroness of expectant mothers, and sick infants.

Because she is credited with 2 miracles: helping a mother give birth and saving a sick baby (in what is told like a resurrection story).

But furthermore, St. Nicole/Colette is the patron saint of “lost family members” which is an neat nod to her story in THT. And the name Nicole means “victorious people” or “people of victory”. Foreshadowing for Serena’s goals, subconsciously perhaps, or Holly/Nichole’s future?

Now, whether or not the writers were thinking about all the significance of Nichole, who knows. And even if they were, do they ascribe any of that knowledge to Serena? Or maybe they are hinting at something. Who knows. I’m going to guess Margaret Atwood chose the names that appear in the book on purpose. But I don’t know about the writers of the TV show.

*I actually can’t remember if Grace was one of the babies or wives, lmao.