What's in a Name? Vol. 1

Baby naming is hard work! Don't ever let anyone tell you different.

From the time I was in middle school, I thought about what I would name my children - my daughter specifically. Because even as a twelve year old I knew that I was destined to be a mother to a little girl. Deep in my soul, I just knew it - which is kind of ironic because the entire time I was pregnant with my daughter I was convinced she was a boy. Weird.

But back to the task at hand - the art of naming children. In today's society, anything goes. Celebrities have carved names out of the weirdest of woods. Hence celebrity babies with the names Banjo, Pilot Inspektor, Reign Beau, and Bronx Mowgli (those children belong to Rachel Griffiths, Jason Lee, Ving Rhames and Ashlee Simpson-Wentz respectively). We have classic names, boring names, unusual names, ethnic names, made-up-fairy-tale-freak-sci-fi names! The door is flung wide open for us and we have the opportunity to name our children anything and everything we damn well please.

So what do we name our children? How do we choose those names? Do we honor our heritages and go with traditional or quirky family names? Do we draw inspiration from the time we were pregnant with our children and give them a name that will always remind us of the months they spent in-utero? Do we sit down and pick a name from day one of pregnancy or do we wait until our babies are here before we give them their monikers? How do we name our children? Why do we name them what we name them? It's an interesting question - one that always has an equally interesting story. And so my curiosity was peaked...

I asked some lady friends of mine on Twitter to share their stories with me, so that I could in turn share them with you. I love these kind of dicussions. I love to read about other women's pregnancies and how their children came to be. I'm still that same twelve year old girl fantasizing about what to name my daughters. I still doodle names all over notepads and napkins and scrap pieces of paper. It's a little hobby of mine - the art of naming children. Too bad I can't have the sixteen kids I would need to take up all the names I love so much!

Here are their stories, with links back to their homepages. Please read their tales and then go visit their sites. All of these women are amazing people, and I feel so very lucky and honored that they agreed to do this for me. I hope you enjoy reading their baby-naming process stories as much as I did! Enjoy!

Angie, from A Whole Lot of Nothing

I am the fourth generation of eldest daughters with the middle name Marie, so my whole life, I know I'd have to have a daughter and make her middle name Marie. I had two requirements for her first name: no nicknames and must not be in the top 20 names list. I grew up with a nickname (Angie for Angela) and know it's a pain in the arsehole, so we picked Anna which was the 22nd most popular name in 2003. Sucky for me is that Anna became the 19th most popular name in 2004 when she was born. Still, it fits her and I have NO regrets naming her Anna Banana. Oh, shit. A nickname...

I've always loved the name Siobhan (pronounced sha-VONN), but we didn't want to torture her with an unpronounceable name, so we agreed to give her that middle name. Claire fit, had no nicknames, and wasn't NEAR the top 20. That's how I got my Claire Bear. DAMN! Another nickname.

Find Angie HERE and HERE and sometimes HERE.

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Mishelle, from Secret Agent Mama

We have one daughter. She is our second-born child. Her older brother, whom is named after his father and grandfather, is only one year and three days older than her; we apparently got busy fast.

The day we found out that I was pregnant we had decided to meet a friend for lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant. When we got there we instantly realized something was different. It turned out that, in the short time between our last and current visit, management had changed hands. There was new decor, new servers, and a new menu. Hesitantly, we sat down. I grabbed the new menu and said, "I'm going to have the first thing I point to!" My finger landed on Olivia's Platter. I looked up and said to my husband, "If this baby's a girl, we HAVE to name her Olivia because of this."

We have one daughter. Her name is Olivia.

Find Mishelle HERE and HERE.

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Lala

I was recently asked to contribute to a compilation of stories about how I named my children. Cute. Simple. Paragraph.

I normally refer to the the kids that came from my body as my spawn. I have five total, but only two spawn. I admit that this isn't the most endearing way to refer to my children. The word brings to mind insects. My kids are sometimes annoying, but they are definitely not insects. After being asked this question, I thought: how simple, why didn't I think of that to distinguish them? My spawn, in addition to being the only ones who sprang forth from my uterus, are also the only two I have named.

Their stories are cute and simple. My son is named after my favorite gangster leader, scary in the way real gangster's should be, the original OG, the Godfather himself, Marlon Brando. Coincidentally, and as an answer to the type of folks who raise their eyebrows, it is also my maternal grandfathers middle name, and my uncle's first name. I try not to throw up any Sicilian gang signs when asked.

During my pregnancy with my daughter I was obsessed with television. I didn't watch lots of TV before she was born, and watch only at the gym now. But during the last few months before I gave birth I was ordered to bed rest, which I mostly ignored, except for Law & Order marathons. My daughter is named after the heroine for victims of violent and sick minded crime: Olivia Benson.

Okay, maybe those anecdotes aren't as cute as I thought they were when I started thinking about my answer.

Oops. ; )

Find Lala HERE and HERE.

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Kelly, from Momma Sunshine

Okay, well, my oldest daughter's name is Emma Kathryn. We'd originally chosen "Emily", because I love old-fashioned names, and I had a great aunt named Emily. About a month before she was born, however, I had a panicked change of heart when I read in the paper that "Emily" was a very popular girl's name for that year (2003). We felt strongly that she needed to have an "E" name for some reason, and so decided upon Emma (only to later find out that thanks to "Ross and Rachel", Emma was actually an extremely popular name that year as well!!). Her middle name, Kathryn, is after my ex husband's younger sister.

My youngest daughter's name is Molly Madison. Her first name was chosen on the day I found out I was pregnant. We were taking a road trip as a family and I casually mentioned to my ex, "You know what name I still love that was on our 'reject list' the first time? Molly." He thought about it for a split second and said, "If it's a girl, we'll name her Molly." And that was that! I chose Madison to go with it because I love that name, and I love how they sounded together.

Find Kelly HERE.

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And here's my baby-naming story.

Our daughter's name is Sidney Morgan. I wanted to name her Sidda, but Justin told me it sounded like an old black woman's name and he didn't think that was appropriate for our family for whatever reason - mostly I just think he's a wet fart who wouldn't let me get my way.

From Sidda we went to Sidney, which served a dual puprose. It gave me the option of calling her Sidda for a nickname and it honored my paternal grand-father who's name is Sidney Carroll. I chose Morgan as her middle name simply because I liked it and I liked how it went with Sidney. Back story on that, I was driving around in a neighboring community near my hometown and I completed mispronounced the town name Glamorgan (Glay-morgan...I said Glam-organ). Morgan juist stuck in my head!

And I have to share with you that I endured several dark days where I mulled over naming her Sydney versus Sidney. When you're pregnant, you're insane anyways, but I kept feeling bad for naming her Sidney with an "I" because I knew she'd never be able to find a souvinier with her name spelled correctly. HOW INSANE IS THAT?! I based my child's name on vacation souvineirs!!! I know the horror of trying to find things with your name on it. I've always had to buy two of everything for Mary and Ruth, because I hate going by one or the other. I have two license plates, two flip-flips, two ink pens, two of everything! But alas, I still couldn't find it in my heart to name her Sydney for two reasons: one very reasonable and one still kind of insane. Sidney with an "I" properly honors my grand-father, so that's nice and sweet and sensible. But the insane side of couldn't stand the two "Y"s in Sydney paired with the two "I"s in her last name. Couldn't do it - couldn't stand it. Like I said, completely insane.

And that's how Sidney Morgan came to be Sidney Morgan!

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Again, a big thanks to the ladies who participated with me on this! I hope to gather up some more Moms and have them share their stories in Volume 2!!! Check back soon!

a little bit of Mary all night long*

My darling BFFs threw me a small, sweet little bachelorette party this past Saturday! And I had such a good time!!! We ate at our favorite place to eat: Cheddar's. We went to the "naughty" store and browsed (actually we looked at Halloween outfits more than anything!). Finally we made our way to a new bar in town, very awesome and 100x better than the one we usually go to. Very very fun, even though I'm not "legal" yet - I still had a great time. I don't know how anyone could have a bad time with these gals...


(that's our little saying: "the world revolves around three...both my girls and me")





And I didn't take my camera into the bar, so I have no fun dance-y shots. I have come to the realization that although I love my big beautiful Canon camera, I still need a little one to slip in my pocket to take with me sometimes. Something to look into...

Anyways, we had a blast! Dancing, drinks (for Dobby - she was the only brave soul to drink at the bar and wear her penises THE ENTIRE NIGHT!) and we bumped into a bevy of fun, beautiful people we know (like the lovely Paula celebrating her 19th or 24th birthday *wink-wink*)!!!

Needless to say, I was pooped.





*The title of this post is from the song "Mambo #5"

OHMYJACOB!!!

Yummy yummy yummy vampire/werewolf deliciousness!!!

I cannot wait until November!!!!!!!!!!!

I hate watching movies with him

Whilest watching "The Holiday" with Justin...

J: "Who's she?"
M: "That's Iris."
J: "Who's the other chick?"
M: "That's Amanda."
J: "Who are they supposed to be?"
M: "Just watch the damn movie!"

(Ten minutes later...)

J: "Why are they doing that?"
M: "Why are they swapping houses?"
J: "Yeah, why are they doing that?"
M: "They're unhappy with their love lives."
J: "Why?"
M: "Just watch the damn movie!"

(Thirty minutes later...)

J: "Who's he?"
M: "That's Iris' brother, Graham."
J: "Is he going to get his pole wet?"
M: "Just watch the damn movie!"

(Another ten minutes later...)

J: "So he's got kids? Where are they at?"
M: "At home, I guess."
J: "They're home alone?"
M: "I don't know! Maybe they're with their grand-parents or something."
J: "So does he move his kids to America to be with that chick?"
M: "Just watch the damn movie, Justin!!!"
J: "I might fall asleep - I want to know how it ends."
M: "Then I'll tell you in the morning."
J: "No - I want to know now."
M: "I thought you didn't even want to watch this movie-"
J: "Yeah....well, I want to know how it ends."

This is how it goes any time we watch a movie that I've already seen and he hasn't. HE DRIVES ME CRAZY!!! I cannot believe that this is the man I'm marrying - the man that asks a blue million questions during a movie. Yes, he is that kind of person. Uggggh.

I'm so looking forward to the next twenty or thirty years.

my 9/11 post

I fell in love with the New York City skyline in movies and TV shows and pictures and paintings. NYC has such an atmosphere around it, it positively buzzes. Even though I've been a small-town girl my entire life, I knew that there was something about NYC that filled me with excitement and wonder. The first time we went to the Big Apple, I was in sixth grade. I had a bad perm. I wore my cousin Justin's cargo shorts on the plane. I ate a blueberry muffin. And I "started" all over myself on the plane. When we circled around the tip of the city, I looked at my Mom and said "Look! Mom! It's the Eifeel Tower!" Everyone sitting within a five row radius of us burst into laughter. Those are my first memories of seeing that famous NYC skyline from the window of an airplane.

During our first trip there, we saw Cats. We went to Grand Central Station. We had the stereotypical taxi driver who ran us all over the city looking for our hotel, shouting insults and curses at the people on the street. He tried to run over one poor man selling VHS tapes from the sidewalk. My Mamaw and Aunt Cathy were sitting in the middle seat of the van, praying and singing "Amazing Grace". My Dad and I were in the backseat - he was quoting scenes from "The Exorcist". My Mom was the brave soul riding shotgun - she screamed outloud a few times. I wish I was making this up. On second thought, no I don't. I'm so thankful for this memory of NYC.

I remember our ferry ride out to see the big lady - the Statue of Liberty. I remember looking back at the city and seeing my two favorite buildings: the World Trade Center. Why were these two my favorite buildings out of all the skyscrapers in NYC, you ask? There was a Rugrats movie or episode or something that had the characters as buildings. Phil and Lil were the Twin Towers - the smaller tower had a pink bow on it's antenna, just like Lil wore in her hair on the show. That's my memory of the WTC - that's how I remember those towers. With a big pink bow sticking on the top of one - brother and sister. Twins.

My senior year in high school, Mom told me she would take me on a mother-daughter trip. Anywhere I wanted to go, she said. There was only one place in the world I wanted to go...again. We stayed in a hotel that smelled exactly like garlic. We ate pizza and subs and took a bus tour to Brooklyn. We followed a man into underground Chinatown looking for knockoff designer bags - or stolen real ones for dirt cheap. We saw RENT and Lestat on Broadway. We went to the little church that stands in front of where the World Trade Center once stood. Mom bought a book, "The Little Chapel that Stood" and had the author autograph it. She said her students would enjoy reading this book and knowing that she was actually there when she bought it. I kept thinking about those towers, those people, those lives lost. I kept thinking how it was so strange to be back in a place where such tragedy had happened. I had seen the before and the after. I have pictures of myself with the NYC skyline behind me - one picture with those towers and one without. The skyline doesn't look the same anymore.

I was in 8th grade when it happened. I was in homeroom. I saw the damage for the first time on TV walking by the biology lab. I remember how everyone seemed silent and terrified. I remember slamming my books against an older boy because he made fun of something when they announced the Pentagon had been hit. I remember screaming at him that I had a cousin who worked there - he just happened to be out delivering orders that day, instead of at work. Who knows - I might've lost family that day. I remember wanting to see my Mom. I remember her telling me later that day that all she wanted was to come get me. When a plane flew low next to the school a few weeks later, I remember my heart stopping. The windows shook and the entire room fell silent. I remember feeling that surge of panic all over again. I felt even more miserable because it was just a fluke or a mishap or something - it wasn't even close to what happened just a few weeks ago.

September 11th, 2001 changed us all. It stripped us of our confidence, our security blankets. It made us feel vulnerable and weak and unaware. We were sad. We were angry. We were terrified. But at the same time, it energized us. It made us prepared. It made us grateful. It made us hold our loved ones a little longer and thank our men and women in uniform. They have always been there protecting us and providing us with the lifestyle we've all grown so accustomed to having. We were reminded to give our soldiers their due - they are the reason we live the way we do, in peace and comfort and the knowledge that we are safe when we go to sleep at night.

We learned to be compassionte again. We learned to love our neighbors and treat each other with respect. We reached out to one another and started caring for those around us. We remembered those lost and lent a hand to those left behind. We were united once again as a country, as people torn apart by grief but brought back together by love. 9/11 was a horrible tragedy, one I hope I never have to relive again. I pray for my fellow Americans reliving their darkest times today. I reach out my hand once again to say "I was there. I remember. I am still here today." - let us all remember 9/11 today. Let us never forget.

My senior trip with Mom - absolutely beautiful skyline.