Do you have a future daughter? Probably. So name her after these powerful ladies from history.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Listen carefully to your pregnant belly: Can you hear the romantic sighs of a celebrated poet? Then name your daughter Juana or Inés for the 17th-century poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, who lived in Mexico City and wrote many kinds of poetry, including somewhat raunchy love poems.
As a child, Juana taught herself a wide range of subjects using her grandfather's library, and continued her rigorous programme of self-education into adulthood. She eventually joined a convent in order to be left alone with her studies and her ~scandalous~ poetry. She came to be "one of the world's most daring erotic writers" of her time and ruffled a few feathers in the Catholic church for that reason.
Just think of the feathers your baby Juana Inés will ruffle.
The Mirabal sisters
Does your baby possess uncommon courage? Does your baby fill your uterus with equal parts bravery and righteousness? Then name your daughter for Patria, Minerva, or María Teresa Mirabal – Dominican sisters who boldly opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the 1950s.
The three sisters, along with their husbands, participated in constant underground political actions against Trujillo's regime, and came to be regarded as symbols of resistance and feminist icons known as the "Butterflies". Even multiple stints in prison weren't enough to stop their activism. When Trujillo's government assassinated the sisters in 1960, it sparked a massive public outrage, which was among the catalysts leading to Trujillo's own assassination just six months later.
Nowadays the Mirabal sisters are commemorated every 25 November by the United Nations, which declared an International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in their honour.
Raden Ajeng Kartini
Do you suspect your future daughter to be a famous writer and activist? Of course you do. So name her Raden for Raden Ajeng Kartini (1879-1904), who advocated for women's emancipation and education, and wrote about the need for the improvement of public health and the protection of traditional arts on the island of Java. She also wrote passionately against Dutch colonial rule of Indonesia.
Today she is known in Indonesia as the country's "first feminist", and 21 April is celebrated as Kartini Day. So, try to give birth to your baby Raden on 21 April.
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