Name Lavilla - meaning, origin, numerology

9 March 2019
My mother was one of the .001% who was given this name. I think her mother (my grandmother) chose it all by herself, because, the story goes, my grandfather had to leave immediately after my mother's birth because he had been selected to run what became, under his leadership, the largest cooperative creamery in the United States (perhaps the world). My mother was born, and named Lavilla, in 1925 -- the middle of an era of all that gorgeous 1920s style. Maybe that's why the names her mother, Florence May, chose for her daughters were Joyce Mavis, Lavilla Geraldine, and Lois Jean. They pronounced it la-VY-la or love-EYE-la (not la-VIL-a). But someone, or maybe someoneS, replaced Lavilla with Jerry, a variation of her middle name. Even though Jerry is the name I heard for my mother when I was a very little girl, I loved the sound of Lavilla, and its association with the glorious maternal being that gave me my life. Then one day I heard my mother say how much she disliked the name. And I thought she must be right. I stopped choosing it as my "pretend-name" in games of dress-up and such. Many times over the years I heard my mother joke about the name that embarrassed her because it was so unusual. If her mother had not died when my mother was three, we might know how and where Florence found such a rare name, and why she chose it. By all accounts, Florence was dearly loved, and I have wondered, had others not changed the name she chose, and if she had not died at such a young age, if Florence might have lovingly nicknamed my mother "Lavi" -- pronounced and maybe spelled "Lovey." And if my mother would have not feared love so much.