Name, Name every body has one...

My sister-in-law had a baby in September. 
Their second.
Now they have a girl, and a boy.
He is a junior.
But they call him by his middle name, so it's not confusing.


Why?


With all the names in the world... I mean,  I had a baby name book with OVER 10,000 names in it... why give your kid your name?


Or name your kids Michael and Michelle? 
Eric and Erica? 
Steven and Stephanie? 


These are all basically the same name... 
Think how confusing it must be for the poor kid, never really sure which one you are calling and afraid NOT to come, just in case it was him and will be in trouble for not coming when called...?


My other nephew, from HeMan Hubby's other brother, is also a junior. They too, have two.
A boy, then a girl.


Thankfully, MY sister did not name her son after his father, nor did MY brother name either of his sons after himself.


But he did name them after the grandfathers.
Which is cool only because neither was named Horace or Floyd or Eugene... mercifully, those names are all a few more branches back on the family tree.


About the same level on the family tree as the name my sister chose for her son... 
Luckily, it was a name that's not awful... and has actually seen an increase in popularity over the last few years. 


Having the most kids in either of our families, it was a chore at times to pick a name that we liked for our last child, but wasn't too close to any of our nieces or nephews names.


AND still be unusual and interesting, without being geeky.


So HeMan Hubby devised a plan.


He 'tried out' the names we had picked. 


When he called the kids to dinner he added the try-on names. 


When he called the kids in from playing he added the try-on names. 


When he scolded the kids he added the try-on names. 


And it worked.


We figured out which name went with our other 5 kid's names --- when you're calling 6 kids you want them all to know their name was called-- without sounding too much like another name or getting lost in the roll call.


We like it and it's a little different. 


He's 12 now and LOVES his name.


But he says SIX would have been the best name ever.


Maybe I shouldn't have talked HeMan Hubby out of that one?

What's In A Name?.... Apparently Everything!

My family has finally read some of my posts.

I have no idea if they like what I write or not, but I do know they DO NOT like the names I have given them.

So from this day forward GirlChild will be SmartGirl... she is a college graduate after all, and TeenGirl will be known as BratChild, which IS what I call her here at home most days anyway.

So, my family now consists of HeMan Hubby, GoodMom and her daughter FancyPants, SmartGirl, ManBoy, TeenBoy, BratChild and TweenBoy, who I should probably find a better name for since he will soon be a teen too... I am sure one will find it's way to him naturally in the near future anyway.

Names, those titles and descriptive adjectives that are given to us as children, will follow throughout our lives. Somehow this just doesn't seem fair.
How do our parents, or those giving the names, know what we will be like when we grow up.

Maybe a girl named Blanche will grow up to have dark hair and eyes and be a really grumpy person... Blanche- meaning white or fair of hair and face- would just not fit at all.

A lawyer named Honey? A doctor named Windy? Or grown people with names like Moon and Six and Apple? Who would take these people seriously, other than the Hollywood crowd?

HeMan Hubby wanted me to seriously consider naming TweenBoy, Six.
Why? you may ask. Because he is the 6th child. I vetoed this from the start only to find that NOW TweenBoy thinks that would be a cool name!
But then, he is only 11, so what does he know of the world of grownups with strange names?

My name is one I have strongly disliked my whole life. But, when compared to the other choice my parent's had on the table, I'll keep the one I got, Thank You Very Much!

My children's given names were something I put a lot of thought into. They had to have good or positive meanings, they had to be names that sounded professional, on the off chance one of my kids became a doctor or lawyer or college professor, and they had to fit with the heritage of our families.

Owing to all that my children have somewhat unusual names, but not made up or farfetched. They have names that are found throughout history and in the bible. They have names that represent the various countries of origin found on our Family Tree- or in some cases Family Wreath, but that's the West Virginia side, mostly.

As children, some of them did not like their names, but as they have gotten older, they do.

Of this I am glad, as it took a very long time to come up with them in the first place, and because in every one of my children the positive qualities of the meanings of their names is actually present in them.

Did the name influence the child, or was the child destined to be what he or she is all along?

I have no idea, but the tradition of finding the right name with just the right meaning continued in our family with the naming of FancyPants.
Her parents struggled with finding just the right combination of sounds, syllables and meanings to give their firstborn child.

In the end, the name is perfect, as is the little girl.

What's in a name?

Apparently, everything!

(Just ask my sister!)