What's In a Name?

One of my favorite bloggers, CJane, just had a baby girl and named her Ever. That has got to be one of the coolest names I have ever heard (no pun intended).  I was relieved to see that all of her comments were positive, too, which doesn’t always happen to popular bloggers, and is one thing that makes me think it would be okay to toil away in obscurity indefinitely (sorry, Stacie).

It was a reminder of something I  have been wanting to stand up on my soapbox (this blog) and shout to the parents of the world:  name your kid whatever you want, and if somebody doesn’t like it, give ‘em a big smile and say, “Oh, I just love it!”

We named our first child Kira.  We knew a cute young girl of the same name, so it had a positive association, and it sounded nice in our ears.  The alternative was Emily, which I still regard as one of the loveliest names in the English language.  Unfortunately, we knew approximately 53 other little girls called the exact same thing.  Even now, I think, If I have another girl, I’m naming her Emily.  Ain’t gonna happen, but the sentiment is there.

Now, one of my sistesr-in-law thought Kira was a terrible name.  Apparently, it is a brand of wart ointment.  I had never seen it, and still haven’t, and it gave me pause for about three minutes.  We have since had two more friends who have named their daughters Kira or a variation thereon, so we feel our Kira’s in good company.

So this brings me to my next rant:  should expectant parents road-test baby names on their friends and family?  Most people I know can’t help themselves because they have, of course, chosen the most perfect name and can’t wait to tell the world.  Others, though, just don’t want to hear the criticism, or even that little pause that means, “You have got to be kidding me!”  before the more polite, “Oh.  That’s….different.”

Here’s my take on telling people your baby-to-be’s name – it’s a good idea.  Even if people totally hate it, it warns them.  They have a little time to get used to thinking of your precious angel as “Horace,” before “Horace” arrives.  Trust me, they do get resigned to it even if they initially hate what you’ve chosen.  You also get some practice defending the name and deciding if that’s the one you really, really want to go with.

For example, our youngest daughter is named Scarlett.  Yes, I do love Gone With the Wind.  I came to see the it as a potential baby name, though, after reading the blog My Diary of Triplet Fatherhood, by a guy who has triplet daughters and named one Scarlett.  She is so, so adorable.  He writes so beautifully.  Oh, and my favorite color is red.

When I told my dad we wanted to name baby number five Scarlett, there was a pause, the what-are-you-thinking one, and then, “But, Stephanie, there are so many other names!”  He favored Misty Dawn, himself.

My brother and sister-in-law, who are named Ryan and Sarah, respectively, didn’t like growing up as Ryan G. and Sarah J. because they were each one of six kids in their school classes with the same moniker, and have sworn to never name their own kids anything in The Top 100 Most Popular Baby Names list.  They loved “Scarlett.”  They were in the minority. 

Having gotten negative reactions from about two-thirds of the people we discussed the name with, we temporarily thought about going with Jessica.  Nice, safe, popular, completely uncontroversial Jessica.

In the end, though, we realized we loved the name Scarlett.  That’s who we thought of our baby as being, and we didn’t want to change it. If it immediately brings to mind a saucy young southern girl, well, there could be much worse things.

So if you pore over baby books, consult your family tree, even try combining sounds to come up with something new, only to find that everybody hates the name you picked, or your manly boy name has been appropriated for girls, or even that it’s a brand of wart ointment, don’t apologize.  Unless you’re going to go to the expense of legally changing the child’s name, be proud of it.  Your kid will need to be, so you might as well set the example.

 

If you would like to visit the blog's referred to in this post, here are the links:

http://blog.cjanerun.com/

http://blog.voidstate.com/