NEW YORK: A couple in the United States named their baby girl Eclipse to commemorate the celestial event that captivated North America on August 21.
Freedom and Michael Eubanks welcomed their daughter, Eclipse Alizabeth Eubanks, just hours before the eclipse was set to begin. While their baby wasn’t due until September 3, Freedom went into labor just around midnight, and the couple rushed to Greenville Memorial Hospital near their home in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
“I kind of felt like it was meant to happen, to have her on this day,” Freedom told ABC News.
If they had stuck to their original plans, Freedom says they would have named her Violet. But the opportunity to pay honor to the event was too great to pass up for the couple.
“I think it was just meant to be, her name,” Freedom said. “We’re probably going to call her Clipsey.”
The first total eclipse in a century swept across the United States from coast to coast inspired Americans to make marriage proposals, hold family reunions and take time from work to witness with wonder one of the cosmos’ rarest phenomena.
It’s considered the most documented celestial event in history. South Carolina was one of 14 states to experience the path of totality, and Freedom said she had planned to watch the event with her 2-year-old daughter, Grayson, until their baby’s surprise arrival switched up those plans.
After weeks of anticipation, onlookers from Oregon to South Carolina whooped and cheered as the moon blotted out the sun, transforming a narrow band of the United States from day to night for two minutes at a time.
Even President Donald Trump stepped out of the White House to see the eclipse, though he was spotted briefly looking up without protective glasses, which can cause eye damage, as an aide yelled “Don’t look!”
