It’s so hard picking a name for a baby. You want to pick something that is an extension of yourself, but still allows the child to be an individual. Something not too trendy but not too far out there. Something that will fit her as a child but look good on a resume. Jeremy and I both came up with a lot of names for both our kids, but we had a hard time agreeing on one. Well, actually, we settled on boy names right away but wouldn’t you know we’d only have girls. Jeremy picked some pretty icky names for girls both times like Kiara and Tiera – fine names for other people, but not my girls. When I was pregnant with Alison, we agreed that he would pick the boy name and I would pick the girl name – but when we found out we were having a girl, he changed his mind because he thought the name I had picked (which was Payton Olivia) was a boy name. Now that both Payton AND Olivia are popular names, I’m actually glad I got vetoed.
Everyone in the universe seems to think it’s OK to comment on the name you’ve chosen, while you’re pregnant. With Blythe, people either loved her name or hated it. Most often people would say (and still do), “What is it again?” and then, “How do you spell that?”. With Alison I was told I was misspelling her name – but I am a lover of grammar, so I spelled it phonetically. I love the names we chose for both girls, not that we call them by their names very often. No one tells you, when you’re choosing your baby name, that (for the first year or two anyway) you won’t even call the baby by her name so you may as well wait and pick a good one.
It doesn’t matter what name you choose for your child, even if you’ve decided that you’ll call them by a nickname. We thought we might call Alison “Ali” but we don’t. Jeremy thought he’d call Blythe “Bly” and I thought I’d call her something relating to “Bee” but we don’t. What I do call them are embarassing names that I’m almost ashamed to call them in public. And oddly, I don’t call Blythe by names I called Alison. Why do I call Blythe “Goolly-goo-goo”? Something having to do with an Eddie Murphy stand up routine I remembered from decades ago. I tried to stop calling her that, but I can’t. It just comes out of my mouth before I can stop it – and when she laughs, how can I call her something different? Same with “Buggy-boo”. “Booger”. I can just imagine her going by “Booger” in Junior High. The worst one by far is what I call Alison, and that is “Pooter” or sometimes, “Pooty-Alison”.
Alison’s gotten me back lately though, by deciding that instead of calling me “Mama” she’ll call me “Old Lady” since I sometimes call her “young lady”. I guess that’s my just desserts!
Ahhh, the sweet life!
Everyone in the universe seems to think it’s OK to comment on the name you’ve chosen, while you’re pregnant. With Blythe, people either loved her name or hated it. Most often people would say (and still do), “What is it again?” and then, “How do you spell that?”. With Alison I was told I was misspelling her name – but I am a lover of grammar, so I spelled it phonetically. I love the names we chose for both girls, not that we call them by their names very often. No one tells you, when you’re choosing your baby name, that (for the first year or two anyway) you won’t even call the baby by her name so you may as well wait and pick a good one.
It doesn’t matter what name you choose for your child, even if you’ve decided that you’ll call them by a nickname. We thought we might call Alison “Ali” but we don’t. Jeremy thought he’d call Blythe “Bly” and I thought I’d call her something relating to “Bee” but we don’t. What I do call them are embarassing names that I’m almost ashamed to call them in public. And oddly, I don’t call Blythe by names I called Alison. Why do I call Blythe “Goolly-goo-goo”? Something having to do with an Eddie Murphy stand up routine I remembered from decades ago. I tried to stop calling her that, but I can’t. It just comes out of my mouth before I can stop it – and when she laughs, how can I call her something different? Same with “Buggy-boo”. “Booger”. I can just imagine her going by “Booger” in Junior High. The worst one by far is what I call Alison, and that is “Pooter” or sometimes, “Pooty-Alison”.
Alison’s gotten me back lately though, by deciding that instead of calling me “Mama” she’ll call me “Old Lady” since I sometimes call her “young lady”. I guess that’s my just desserts!
Ahhh, the sweet life!
One reply on “Baby names”
I think a good name for a baby is Cuddawee Wuddawee Sniffobuns. Then people may be compelled to speak to it like a normal person. Extra bonus: it works for a girl or a boy.