We get a lot of people who are curious where we got the name Auden, something we knew we could expect when we chose it. Obviously, we were in familiar territory, since Dresden's name usually gets similar questions. Auden bears the name of my favorite poet, W.H. Auden, and a specific poem served as the inspiration for me to give it to her. I read a poem of his a long time ago, long before children were even on the horizon, but three particular verses spoke to me. When I read them, I instantly dreamed of having a daughter I could recite them to one day, and that Auden would be her name. I know the poem isn't about a mother and her child, and these lines mean different things when read in the context of the complete poem, but something about them in this abbreviated form just felt so sweet and perfect to me to dedicate to a baby, and I couldn't get the idea of that name out of my head.
I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,
I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.
The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.
- W.H. Auden
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