The Etymology of Ziggy

Before I share the story about the origin of the name Ziggy, I wanted to give credit to the inspiration behind the idea of giving a name to our unborn child. My good high school friend, Stephanie, and her husband have two beautiful children. While pregnant with their first, they decided to name their in utero child, Neptune. She explained to me that it felt too impersonal to simply refer to the baby as "the baby" for the entire term of the pregnancy. It was much more fun and personal to grant the unborn child an identity -- something preferably gender neutral. They chose the Roman god of the ocean. Shivy and I fell in love with this idea.

To compliment this idea, in the tech industry, almost all new tech products are identified by a codename moniker that the company can refer to while the product is still in development. We figured we could do the same for Ziggy, hence, Project Ziggy was born.

The name, Ziggy, itself is -- as you may have already guessed -- short for zygote. Yes, we are huge nerds. No, we are not giant fans of Ziggy Marley. And while Ziggy is no longer a zygote (now an embryo, almost a fetus), we have grown fond of the codename and both families have adopted it with open arms.

No, we don't have any actual baby names picked out yet, but we think Ziggy will do just fine for now. Thanks, Steph and Aaron, for the wonderful idea!