Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Name the Baby!

When I was maybe 12 or 13 I had a list of names.  These were names I thought I might someday name my children.  I am not sure why I thought I needed to get started with the list then, but it was fun for me.  Did any of you do that?  It seems to me that some of my friends did it as well.

Oddly, when we did have our children, I never really pushed for any of the names on my previous list.  When we were first pregnant Mike had the idea of the names Maria and Benjamin, both derived from his grandparent's names.  In case you don't know, our Maria is pronounced Mariah and is a Norwegian name.  I added my Grandma's name and Wa-la, we had a name we both loved, Maria Rose.

The second time around we stuck with Benjamin, after Mike's Poppa Benny.  Poppa Benny died before Mike was even born but we'd both heard fun stories about him.  Interestingly, he was a banker.  Our Ben is now a banker as well.  Mike's middle name and his Dad's middle name, Robert, seemed like a good choice.  It was kind of fun to keep that link going.

When we were pregnant the last time (yes, I said "we" but really Mike did not spend 9 months throwing up) Mike and I were settling on Isaac for a boy's name or Charis for a girl's name.  Isaac means laughter and Charis is Greek for grace.  My Mom's name is Grace so it would have been as though we were naming her for my Mom.  I liked that a lot but as it turned out, we didn't have a "her".

Sam was named by committee.  Maria was 12 and Ben was 8 when we had him and they really did not agree that our baby would be an Isaac.  They were not impressed when we said it would be fun to say "Mike and Ike."  They were very involved in the name-choosing and had strong opinions.  The debates went on for months.  We had some funny moments as we discussed what playground nicknames might occur with any name one of us mentioned.  I think I will refrain from sharing those.

Finally, just a few weeks before I gave birth (I can't bring myself to say "we" gave birth) we were all in the car and the name, Sam, popped into my head.  I ran it by the other's and no one had anything sassy to say.  So, Sam it was...actually, Samuel.  We'd already chosen his middle name to honor his cousin who had died just a few months before Sam was born.

So, Sam wasn't technically named after anyone.  OK, my family did have a dog by that name when I was a child but really, Sam wasn't named after a dog.  When I told Grandma Rose our new baby's name she thought I'd named him after my cousin, John.  That was the day I learned that John's name was actually Samuel John.  His birthday was the same day as our Sam's!  It was just a coincidence, though.

How about you?  Are you named after anyone?  Have you named your children after anyone?  I was named after the songs, "Wake up Little Susie" and "Peggy Sue".  Are you wondering why I'm talking about baby names?

Well, yesterday our beautiful daughter announced her pregnancy.  Click here to check out her blog.  They did a beautiful job naming their first, Cordelia Rose.  However, I thought maybe they might need a little help with this second one.  It's only fair!  Remember, Maria got to have a say when we named Sam!

Naming a baby now has some advantages over 20 years ago.  The internet is a marvelous tool.  Do you know you can look up names by heritage, such as Irish for example?  It's really fun.  You can also look up the meanings of the names.  I have taken this internet-baby name connection one step further.  I thought perhaps they'd enjoy the selections I came up with that are more unique than what is found elsewhere.  You know how on many blogs you are asked to fill in the word verification to leave a comment?  Well, I started noticing that some of those words were kind of cool!

We've known for sometime now that grandbaby #2 was on the way so I got started right away with my list. I've not shown it to Maria and Eric yet but I am certain they will be delighted.  Each of these is from an actual word verification; I did not make them up on my own.  I do think, though, that I could make up the meanings of them on my own.

So, since we were subjected to the committee approach when we named Sam, I am inviting you all to be on this committee with me.  It is sort of an adjunct committee, not exactly official.  I want each of you to tell me which name you prefer?  Is it Fratwist?  Chaltie?  You can choose from this list or from a word verification of your own.

Fessino
Adensti
Fratwist
Panco
Syceobna
Raffe
Essinc
Yedulsi
Michon
Lestical
Amsawei
Purodsh
Ceflepin
Autuencr
Retymun
Glepret
Besso
Eryop
Notonham
Kince
Chaltie
Abblos
Biasi
Etedst
Arksin
Suppharo
Kedin
Hessina
Subbi
Kansti
Fersey
Tingra

Featured Post

My Life as a Travel Agent

On a recent morning I was at work and as one of my patients was waiting for his death, I thought again about an idea that keeps popping int...