Names, Naming, importance of:

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” from Romeo and Juliet.

I find people, mostly women fall into certain categories while on the perfect name hunt for their child. I know people who will not tell you the name until it is revealed at the birth. Others will tell you up front. And others have not a clue until weeks and weeks after the birth. I fell into category two. As soon as I knew the name I told EVERYBODY. Mostly because I had a lot of friends who were pregnant the same time and there was no way they were going to steal my name.

My search for the perfect name began before I was even pregnant. I kept lists of boy and girls names. Every time I heard a unique (but not too unique) name I added it to the list. I was a name collector. I was certain I would have a boy so that side of the list was much longer than the girl side. Oh, I had the perfect boy name chosen, one that would honor my grandfather who passed away when I was young. But wouldn’t you know, the ultrasound tech. said “it’s a girl.” We were exuberant about our little girl but that put us back on the name search.

I wanted the perfect name, one that exemplified classy, whip smart, thoughtful, funny, athletic, full of potential…..all those and more. A name that was a perfect fit for my little girl. My first choice was Madeleine as in Madeleine Albright; AS IN THE FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE (who btw went to a high school in this town!). Thinking that if I gave my girl this name she would come out brilliant and ready to take on the world. My husband thought it sounded old fashioned and wouldn’t go for it. No Madeleine. BUMMER. My second choice was Katherine, as in Katherine Hepburn; AN ICONIC AMERICAN ACTRESS. She was a very classy lady. If my kid bore this name she would also be classy and sophisticated. Katherine is pretty formal so she could use Kate or Katie when she younger and if she became a Dr. or lawyer or humanitarian or school teacher or entrepreneur like her daddy she might choose to use formal Katherine. Again, shot down by the husband. No Katherine. This man was a pain in my ass. Two perfect girl names shot down.

It took great searching and a lot of thought but we finally found it; the perfect name to fit our little girl; something strong and beautiful oh, and the nick name, simply perfect.

 

name change

We’ve decided to change our baby’s name. Luckily for us it’s only her nick name so no formal papers need to be processed-whew-filing papers in some downtown government office, yeah, that would take me at least 6 months before I managed to get it done. This nick name is what we call her 99% of the time, in fact, I seriously doubt she will use her full name much unless she is running for president or is the Secretary of state or a judge.

Another bonus in this name change game, we are only changing the spelling, not the actual name, the new spelling is closer to her actual name and just seems to make more sense. See it’s not as bad as it sounds and since she’s only 8 months (almost 9) we won’t even have to go around to schools and teachers and coaches and whoever else to notify them, nope the only thing we have to fix is her name on the wall. Easy peasy.

I do have a concern with this change though. I have heard through the blogging grapevine a certain celebrity might potentially if the stars align just right use a form of this same name and if they did we look like copy-catters. Just to clarify we have been pondering this for a while. Am I stressing over something that I shouldn’t, probably. Who cares what celebs name their kids, maybe they copied me. Ha, ever think of that? And I guess if people think we are copiers that’s okay too. Maybe Petunia will feel cool to have the same name as this other famous kid could potentially have. Maybe this celeb won’t name their baby this and all will be right with the world. Maybe I shouldn’t even stress about something so not worthy of stress, there, I’m done and her name is now spelled the new way and I like it.