Mom gives celestial name to baby born during total solar eclipse

A Texas mother welcomed a baby girl during Monday’s total solar eclipse and named her Sol, which means “the sun” in Spanish.

Alicia Alvarez, 34, told “Good Morning America” ​​that she knew she wanted to choose a celestial name for her second child since she had already named her first child Luna, or “moon,” in Spanish .

“I loved the way the sun and the moon sounded together. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s (a) perfect name,'” the Fort Worth resident explained. “And then having it during the eclipse was obviously not planned.”

Alvarez said she went into labor earlier than expected, but didn’t think she would give birth on Monday, before her due date of April 17.

“My doctor had joked — Dr. (Carolyn) Kollar — joking, ‘Oh, you’re going to have this baby on the eclipse. So you have your sun and your moon,'” Alvarez recalled. “And I just didn’t pay attention to him.”

But on Monday at 1:04 p.m., as the total solar eclipse unfolded over Mansfield, Texas, Alvarez and her husband Carlos Alvarez welcomed their second daughter, Sol Celeste Alvarez.

Alvarez said she was able to give birth naturally and without an epidural at Mansfield Methodist Medical Center. Sol weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces and was 20 inches long, according to his mother.

“She opened her eyes as soon as she came out,” Alvarez said. “She said to me, ‘I’m ready to see the eclipse!’ … She said, ‘I want to see the world. I need to see this.'”

Big sister Luna Laura, 4, has already met her younger sister, and Alvarez said Sol is “doing really well,” eating frequently and “smiling a lot.”

Alvarez said she plans to tell Sol her unique birth story when she’s a little older.

“I really think there’s a meaning to everything. She gave her name a meaning,” she said.