What’s In A Name?

Why “Freckles and Figs”?

I’ve been getting this question a lot lately. It’s valid, too, but it always makes me kind of giggle, because I wasn’t 100-percent certain about it either when I first came up with it. All the blogs, social media pages, and creative outlets I’ve started in the past have been word-plays off of my name: Aud Swan, Impossibly Aud, It’s An Aud Life. The odd/Aud puns were my favorite, clearly, but if a random person came across one of those pages, the name wouldn’t exactly hook them. They’re too personalized to me, someone internet strangers don’t know or care about.

So I knew I wanted to have something more vague this time around to attract a variety of readers, not just people who already know my name, and keep them intrigued. It still needed to be in relation to me, though, because I’m the one who founded and curates content for this little web space. I started thinking of words that describe me and the things I love. Plus, alliteration is my weakness. It had to be incorporated; that I was certain about.

I wrote a list, which I dug out of one of my many notebooks the other day. I remembered that I’d scribbled down a few initial words a couple months ago:

Margaritas and Mayhem (Oh, my God. Just, no.)

Aesthetic Amore (I’m not even sure what this means.)

Coffee and Cashmere (A little too “Cupcakes and Cashmere“.)

Coffee

Tacos

Ice Cream

Gelato

Freckles and Figs: All things healthy and beautiful.

That is all literally written verbatim on a lined piece of paper in a notebook sitting on my desk, sans the parenthetical notes. As you can probably tell, it looked as though I was getting hungry, and also, this was not my strongest brainstorming session. But my current blog name came about that afternoon, so why did I keep it?

For starters, I really love my freckles. I used to not, when I was a kid and most of my friends didn’t have splotches covering their noses and cheeks, but now I feel like they, though faded some since when I was little, make me unique. It’s something that defines me. I’m not just a blonde-haired, blue-eyed fashion blogger (it’s fine if you are, but I’m just not); I’m a woman with interesting qualities writing about real life, and I think my freckles represent that in a way and in a word.

And figs? Other than it being a food item — which I love innately, if you can’t tell — and starting with an F, figs, to me, are exquisite fruit. And delicious. And versatile. You can put them in anything from an appetizer to dessert. They’re the part that represents health, vitality, and loveliness.

It might all sound even more silly now that you know; I think it sounds silly to me, too, which is why I can’t help to laugh when people ask me about it. It does mean something to me, though. Symbolism has always been a major heart-tugger for me in literature. Freckles and Figs come together and in a strange way tell something about my life; my mind’s always been a little weird like that. Also, it’s better than Tacos and Ice Cream.

Actually, that’s debatable.

These fun photos are by Sarah Cook, AKA my favorite photographer and a dear friend.

Shirt: Old Navy (Sold out: similar here) // Denim: Old Navy // Flannel: Old Navy (And apparently I’m obsessed with Old Navy.) // Boots: Target (Couldn’t find online: similar here) // Necklace: gift: similar here and here // Lipstick: L’Oreal “British Red“