Wednesday, February 27, 2008

The name game!

I stumbled across this blog today and was intrigued by the subject matter. I left a comment but it didn't show up, so I don't know if it will or not.

We are not going to tell anyone our baby's name until the baby is born. It is my in-laws who have had the biggest issue with our names, citing such bizarre reasons why each name is wrong that we have been left with no choice but to pretend we don't have one picked.

Greta was greeted with a snort by half of the family, approved of by the other half of the family, and she was called "Gretchen" or "Gretchum" for the first few weeks of her life. I was going to name her Eva-Kate but was told "they will call her Evil Kate". Apparantly this "they" that dominated the playgrounds of the 1950's going on rhyming rampages and destroying young lives via slight alterations of the first name into something unflattering is still a real worry for folks of a certain generation. Nowadays being given a nickname is the least of childrens worries, and frankly, it just isnt done anymore.

Mickey was a mini-scandal because of MICKEY MOUSE, (an apparently relevant 1930's cartoon character.) And for not being Michael, but "just Mickey". He will never be a president, I have been told, or a lawyer I think was the other one. (Dare I say boo-hiss to those job suggestions?!)

Casey was my husband's dog's name, but not my problem. I have needed to name a child Casey since I was about 7 years old. After being there with me for our homebirth, I really could have named him Mailbox and my husband would have just stared at me with stars in his eyes and agreed to it. (There was a brief "you are so freakin' amazing" honeymoon period for the first few days after he was born, hee hee)

Charlie is a very normal name and sometimes I still can't believe something so normal got picked by us! I was co-erced under Morphine immediately after surgery to name him "Charles" after an unknown family member and I regret it alot but try not to worry about it too much. He is such a Charlie that we love the name now, but I do not like that it is "really" Charles and am not sure what to do about it, if anything.

Our new baby will have the coolest name ever, haha, but there is an extremely select group of folks who will get to hear it...namely one or two close friends whose own beautiful babies' names were scoffed at while still In Utero. I hope this doesn't happen to any of my readers, but please share your own experiences with this subject matter...

16 comments:

Stacey said...

My MIL always has something to say about what anyone names their babies. I don't recall anything about Isabella Rose, but Felix Diego sure took a beating. None of her 3 children have middle names, and her only son, Felix, wasn't named until he was 3 months, and it was begrudgingly after his father anyway. She proceeded to bully my SIL, and named her 2 kids for her. Made us a list of off-the-wall and uncommon biblical names, calling daily and harping when I was pregnant with Aidan Gabriel. Called MY BROTHER and made a fiasco over the phone with him because he chose to name is son Jacob. So we stopped telling her our name choices. Why does she care, anyway? It is *your* baby, you name it whatever you want, anyone who has something negative to say can go suck an egg. They have either already had the chance to name their kids, or will in the future.

Maiasaura said...

My kids are Simon and Theodore. When our second was born we got a lot of jokes about whether we were going to have a third and name him Alvin (ala The Chipmunks). Stupid. But people don't say much anymore, since we always call him Theo (which was our original plan, we didn't start calling him that in response to the Chipmunk jokes). I agree with Stacey that naysayers should suck an egg. It's ridiculous that someone would think it any of their business what you name your child. I think keeping the name a secret is a good policy. With our first, we told the sex but kept the name a secret. With the second, everything was out in the open.
Anyway, I'm rambling. One good thing about having kids today, I think, is that the name game is so open. There is such huge variety in names these days. It's amazing people still have any hang-ups about names.
I'll look forward to finding out the fifth name you choose.

k.thedoula said...

My inlaws despise our daughters name... and I have doubts they like the boys names either.
Our children have fairly uncommon names, the eldest... we have yet to find another one with his!
Any hoo... I love my mother, despite knowing she didn't particularly like any of the names... said 'It isn't my child to name, so I don't have a say in the matter'.
Awesome. One of the few things she's ever got right... but boy did I need that in the following six months that my in-laws refused to speak to me, because it is MY fault that our daughter has MY last name you know.
*husband filled in the paperwork for her... and decided that she should have moms last name. Alas, they don't believe him. I'm just evil.:-)
I can hardly wait to hear about this new babes name!
I fell in love with Red Spirals daughters name! She had people commenting on it too! Waiting somewhat patiently... tap tap tap. Wishes I knew you in real life... or at least got a hint... tap tap tap.
=)

Andrea said...

My kid is named Spike.

My family thinks it's the coolest name ever; my inlaws about disowned us.

I acted all shocked and put out that they would be so nasty to me while I was pregnant, and they realized they were treading on thin ice with me. So they got over it.

Then, my MIL tried to be all suggesty about "unusual" names if we had another boy. For some reason she kept pushing Thor and Dimitri. Then my husband told her those names would be out just because she suggested them, and she piped down.

Yeah, what's with this mythical tribe of hooligans making up mean nicknames on the playground? And for homeschooled kids, to boot?

Kelley said...

We've never had much trouble in the name game, but we're also fairly straight down the line in that one. Both my husband and I have fairly normal names, but they get spelled wrong constantly. That was an issue I wanted to avoid since no one can seem to pronounce our last name properly either.

When our oldest was in utero, we came up with a great name - William Robert. A nice combination of family names, and it was only after I had a burst of inspiration that I realized that he'd get called Billy Bob Birrell that I put my foot down and refused to name him that. After he was born, we realized we'd picked an extremely biblical name (Joshua David), and we liked that idea so we've kept with it. The only regret I have is that I didn't name my middle son after my brother, Chad, who was born on the same day (different year), but died 13 days later. I'm not sure what I was thinking to not do that. Oh well. I like his name anyway. It's Matthew Taylor. It's the middle name that would have been Chad if I'd had my head on straight at the time.

Our youngest, Benjamin Drury, follows the biblical idea but adds my maiden name, something I'd been pushing for since the beginning. I really like that name, and was quite sad that I had to give it up after I got married. It's not a big deal, but I was sad at the time.

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the name we have picked out for this one - Rachel Kate. We call her by it all the time, and the kids refer to her by it constantly. Well, that is when they aren't calling her "Sprout." :) Once again, it is a fairly normal name, but it is special to us since she is being named for a very dear childhood friend of mine whose name I have adored ever since.

I must admit that I'm not thrilled about some of the names our family members have picked out for their children, but I would never in a million years think it my place to say anything, much less make a big deal. Name your child whatever you want, and know that I'm pulling for you the whole way. :)

mamalove said...

Greta was our girl's name if Silas had been born without a penis. I just love that name. I wanted to call Si by his middle name, Bodhi, but the older kids hated it. They obviously don't understand the concept of sexy. DD's middle name is Love, because, well, I was young. It fits her, though. Can't wait to hear your baby names!

Judit said...

I think all your kids have fine and sweet and respectable names, what's all the fuss? The only slack we ever got for Gabriel Sebastian and Magdalena Clio is from my side of the family, and even that wasn't so bad considering the nitpickers they usually are, plus that they live in a country where there is an Official List of Names every parent must pick from. Predictably, their issue was that they sound somewhat foreign--but that hardly counts as real criticism to me anyway :)

CNH said...

My mother was CONVINCED that Gabriel was going to be called Gabby. ::insert eyeroll:: He's been Gabe for short since birth, and the only people who ever call him Gabby or Gabrielle are medical professionals who glance at charts and misread his name.

I finally gave up caring what anyone thinks and loudly announced that we are welcoming Claire Eileen and Benjamin David into the world in May. I have to shove two big heads through my vagina in one day. They can stick it if they don't like the names! ROFL!

CNH said...

Holy shit judit! MY Gabe is Gabriel Sabastian! :D

Sgt Howie said...

Whenever this topic comes up I always think of my mom's country bumpkin school chum Clara, who loudly boasted at a Little League game, "I didn't call my boys little sissy names like Timmy and Jimmy and Tommy, I gived 'em good old 'Murrican names they can take to their graves!"

If I had been a girl my name was to be Holly. People who know my surname will appreciate this.

Also? Spike ROCKS! Kudos, andrea!

Anonymous said...

We have never picked "for sure" names with our babes...and never had U/S either, so never knew girl/boy. We did come up with lists of names we liked, then when baby was born, one of them just seemed right. We had no flak from anyone but MY parents! My mother just about drove me batty with her "suggestions" and badmouthing the names I liked. So I stopped saying what names they were altogether. FWIW, we have: Clara Wyn, Evelyn Ruth, and Liam Alexander Milo.
The boy name really stumped us. He was Baby Boy for a solid two days. All the middles are family names, but the firsts are just names we liked...oh, and Evelyn was born on Xmas Eve, so it's a hidden tribute to her birth day too :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, and housefairy, your comment did show up on the linked post!

Stacey said...

"And for homeschooled kids, to boot?"

Exactly. We had almost named Aidan Antonio...people kept saying his teachers would be calling him Tony (and I *hate* that name, lol) Ummm...nope, they won't, because *I* am his teacher, and his name is Antonio, lmao.

La Sirena said...

I don't even have kids yet, however in the next year Hubby and I will be starting our family. For the past 2-3 years I have thought of kids names that I definitely want: Alastair or McAlastair, Shiv Kumar, Sabine, Uli, Bettina, and my ultimate favorite Maya. My hubby and I joke that we love all the names and will never be able to decide. I said we'll just have as many kids as we have lovely names picked out. Oh if it were that easy! The family already jokes around as if the kids are already here - which I love because it is supportive to me - and sort of shows, they like the names. I tend to love German and Indian names with a sprinkling of British. How fun, can't wait to hear the name baby's name! =)

Anonymous said...

One good reason not to tell family-
We told some of our family early on that we would be naming our son Alexander James, James being my father's name. However we changed our minds later on and did not name the baby after him. Our families are gracious and said nothing, but I can see how it might be hurtful to the person who thinks the baby will have their name.

sneakmastergeneral said...

Pfft...I like all your baby names. We have Gage Kenneth, which everyone in our families loves. And our daughter is Logan Vail...people seem to tolerate Logan okay, Vail they don't care for. It's the future names I have to worry about. Mostly my grandmother, LOL. We are thinking of naming our next girl, whenever that happens, Siobhan or Soairse (pronounced Shi-VAN, or Seer-SHA)but grandma keeps asking, "Why are you picking colored names?" YES, she actually said that!!!! And they are such Irish names, yikes. We also like Tadg for a boy and pretty much no one in my family or my husband's like that, oh well. =)