It was Evelyn’s proposal and I agreed to it about six weeks later, badly, and then properly.

They are Maya Tarrant-Vance and Nora Tarrant-Vance.

Tarrant first, because it came first.

At school they are Maya T-V and Nora T-V, which they invented themselves, and which has now spread to four other children in that building who do not have hyphenated names and simply liked it.

I asked Maya once, when she was seven, whether she minded having a long name.

And she said, “It’s not long, it’s two.”