Laya / Aster / Winn-Desai
Laya
An image from a great presentation on Indian Classical Music...click through for more.
What does it mean?
"Laya" is a term from Indian classical music that could be translated as "tempo". It is the cycle of the music, the underlying pulse or pace of a piece.
It has a Sanskrit derivation which we are still working to decipher. It appears connected to a wide array of potent meanings, ranging from "repose" to "dissolution" to "clinging." Ethan's enjoying thinking that it's all connected: referring to the space between the events of music and the infinite space (and silence) within which all the universe's happening and matter unfolds* and the space between mental events, within which we find cessation, peace and liberation.
How do you say it?
In Devanagari script "Laya" is written "लय", and might be pronounced "la-ee" or "la-eeya" (with a short "a" that is similar to "uh"). The easiest way for western mouths to think of it is like "maya" but with an "L".
Aster
Aster flowers, pic by Hectonicus, via CC-BY-SA license.
What is it?
We love the aster flowers that thrive in the meadows in our favorite places in Central New York and New England. They are beautiful simple flowers, but are also part of one of the largest families of flowering plans, Asteraceae. They all derive their naming from the latin for "star".
Why aster?
Little Laya reminded us of Ethan's grandmother, Esther. In the tradition of passing on names that are slight variations of the names of those we've loved who are passed, "Aster" felt perfect.
Winn-Desai
We've taken Ethan's paternal family name and Anaar's maternal family name. Voila!
Ethan Winn + Anaar Desai-Stephens =
* The space around the mere 0.0000000000000000000042% of the universe that is actually matter.