Her names:
Eléa is a sort of combination and modification of the names of two individuals. The first is Ella, Cindy's paternal grandmother. Ella was born in the Austro-Hungarian empire near Kraków (in modern-day Poland), grew up in Vienna, and emigrated to Venezuela in 1939 with her husband. The second is José Eleazar López Contreras (known as Eleazar López), the president of Venezuela from 1935 to 1941. Cindy's paternal grandparents were allowed to leave the port of Hamburg in Nazi Germany in 1939, with the assumption (on the part of the Third Reich) that they would be denied entrance to every port of call. And they were indeed refused entrance to every American and Caribbean nation at which they stopped. Venezuela was their last port of call before they would have no choice but to return to Hamburg. They were initially refused entrance in Venezuela too, but during the night, as they were anchored off shore, Eleazar Lopez decided to allow them refuge and thereby saved them from almost certain death.
Eléa is pronounced as follows: (1) the initial "e" sound from "elephant," (2) "lé" is like the first syllable in "lego," but making it into a diphthong (and thus pronouncing it as "lay") is fine too, (3) "a" is like the initial "u" of "under" or "a" of "above." The emphasis is on the second, not first, syllable; hence the acute accent on the second "e." So, to make it simple, say "Princess Leia" (from Star Wars) and just add the initial "e" of "elephant" to "Leia" without changing the way you are saying "Leia."
She is named Anne after one of Luke's aunts, who passed away six days before Eléa's birth and to whom we so very much wanted to introduce Eléa.
Her last name is Thompson, not Eigler-Thompson, but we wanted to keep Eigler as a second middle name.
Elea! We are so glad you convinced your parents to become bloggers!! We are excited to follow your every changing presence. Yay!
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