This week we got talking with Cleo Ahn. Cleo is the founder and creative director of Primary New York. We worked with Cleo after she gave birth to her daughter to create the NARA ring, which recently developed into our new birthstone collection. Read below to find out how the NARA ring (a spinoff from our Arthur signet ring) came to life.
Where did the name Nara come from?
My husband is Korean so we wanted to find a name that had meaning in Korean but wasn't a typical Korean name. We both loved "Nari" which means Lily in Korean. But towards the end of my pregnancy decided we liked Nara better, it felt more sophisticated for when she's older. But most of our family still nicknames her Nari!
Does it have a meaning?
Like most names it has a few meanings. It's of Greek/Hindu origin and means happy. In Korean Nara means home / country land. In Japanese it means oak. Nara is the original capital of Japan, before Tokyo, which we found out from a cab driver in Tokyo after she was born :) But we were most familiar with the name Nara, because we are big fans of the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, who funnily enough paints there badass baby girls that totally look like Nara.
When you had us make that ring for you, why were you drawn to that design?
I love that signet ring, so I wanted something that would fit with its' design and represent Nara for my first Mother's Day. Her middle name is "Sol." I have a Spanish middle name so we wanted her to have one too. So the diamond center as the sun with engraved rays extending out, felt really representative of her spirit.
Check out our new NARA BIRTHSTONE collection here.