Monday, December 5, 2011

It's all in the name.

I have always loved naming my pets, making up new names for myself, stuff like that. When I was young, we moved a lot, so when we got to a new place, sometimes I would introduce myself as someone I was not... My name is not super special, although my middle name is more me, Summer.
Anyway, I guess, as an adult, when naming my kids I just took the gloves off. We got a LOT of flack from nameless folk about our daughters name, which oddly enough didn't bother me. There was one person that offended me personally and we are related so it was not a deal breaker. 
In all honesty, it did bother me and although I am way past it, I will not be sharing the name of our new babe until he/she is born. Not with anyone. It sucks.
Eddie had a relative that was a real a-hole about the name too- so he is the other reason we will not be sharing. He told Eddie she would "hate" us. That was a deal breaker. We both just had to chalk it up to opinions are like assholes... and this one has and is one.
So ya, this time we won't get to share and that is hard for me. I am really into spreading good news and I am no good at secrets but when you are carrying a child, there are sensitivity buttons hidden all over you. You don't know they are there half the time and they just get pushed and it sucks. it's hard to keep your cool sometimes and I am a control freak. I like to be in control, I like to know what to say and what to do. I am not a know it all, I just like to have control of myself and when someone pushes my buttons, when I'm not pregnant, I can always handle it and when I'm with child... seems like it 60/40 and I don't like those odds.
I love my daughters name. As she gets older and more of her personality shows, she is SO her name. "Elvis" was a name my son thought of. He just said it, sitting in the back of the car. It was before we knew she was a girl, we were driving around and talking names and he said "what about Elvis?" and I said "well not for a boy but I kinda like it for a girl"- and that was that. There were other names in the running, but when we found out she was a girl, it just stuck. "Glo", is for my Grandmother, her name is Gloria. She is one of my all time favorite people in the world, I just sat next to her at Thanksgiving.
"Danger" is a name that I have loved since I was a teenager. It was the name of a character in a book and I have loved it since. 
So there's that. That's the story behind her name. I love it and I hope I can do something just as well for my next baby. My son has a family name, he goes by Quattro because we didn't know what to actually call him. Edward Carlyle Daly IV is a big name for a little guy and Eddie is my husband and Ed is his Dad... Edward seemed too old for a baby. While I was in the final few months of my pregnancy my good friend said "what about 'Quattro'?" and that was that. We are actually thinking about getting it put before "Edward" on his birth certificate so it will be legal. it is him, he is "Quattro" and I am 100% sure he will never go by anything else.
So what will No. 3 be called? What will it be? It's hard to come in behind a Quattro and Elvis- it's going to have to be good.
We are taking suggestions, but you won't get a shout out in the liner notes.

12 comments:

  1. I can't believe some people. I mean, even if you don't agree, keep it to yourself. Why go out of your way to say something that you know will upset somebody.
    I always go by the old adage "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". Fuck em.

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  2. I urge people to not talk with family and friends about baby names because it opens a door for some people to feel that they're entitled to select the name. I experienced this firsthand when Cameron was incubating. Originally he was going to be named Phillip Ethan. Both sets of grandparents liked that name. Then somebody pointed out that his initials would be PEZ which was intentional on my part (I've been collecting the dispensers since my teens). Suddenly the floodgates opened and everyone had suggestions for us. Eventually I got so fed up with it that I threatened to name him after my favorite Star Wars character and the greatest daredevil ever. We didn't name him until bout 15 hours after he was born., He was three weeks early so I wasn't there for the birth. I was on the phone with Mama and I was pushing for Cameron. She was pushing for Alexander. So Cameron Alexander it was. Still, Greedo Knievel would have been a kickass name!

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  3. Agree. Keep your name ideas for yourself until the baby is born. When I was pregnant I told my friend who was pregnant same time and she liked my name suggestion so much that she seriously considered taking it for her own baby. I was mad and pissed off and wished I had never said a word. It's different with the sex of the baby. I personally was so curious if it will be a girl or a boy and had to tell everyone by the time I knew. Luckily my friend had her baby in August and decided for a completely different name for her daughter, so when my daughter was born in September she got the name I basically had in mind for her since I knew she'd be a girl :)
    So, I'd never tell anyone my name ideas before the birth anymore, for that reason and for stupid comments. Even if I don't care what other people think of me and my ideas. I'm a bit used to the fact people find it hard to understand where I'm coming from. And in Germany it's all a bit different. A lot of people look weird at you if they never heard the name before over here. And all teachers of my daughter pronounced her name the wrong way: She actually is called TAMIKA (not so uncommon in North-America, but very rare over here in Germany). But actually I always called her MIKA, cause I knew some girl in Brooklyn called that and I even have 'Mika' as a tattoo around my wrist. So it was always Tamika or Mika. The teachers never got it, really. Just one of her teachers who was very cool from grade 7 until grad 10 called her Mika. I mean, even as a German you can't really do wrong with that name, can you?! Well ...
    Now for some reason MIKA is the new 'in-name' for boys in Berlin. In Finland Mika is a common boys name. And at every second corner little boys are getting called Mika now :(
    In the end I don't care. My daughter likes her name, and she is MIKA and no other name would have fit. So.
    To cut a long story short: You'll always have someone you complains about your choice of name and don't tell the name you are thinking of before the baby is born ;) And personally I think Quattro and Elvis are great names, from your descriptions and the photos they both just fit perfectly! That's what a name is kinda there for, isn't it? It has to kind of show/support the person's character.

    Best to you from Berlin!
    Cheers

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  4. That is my motto to, I mean- have people forgotten it? It helps nothing to be rude about it and at the end of the day it's a baby's name. My baby, so we all know it's not going to be Jane or John. Which I like just as well but it's just not really my thing, I'd feel like I'd have to shop at Ralph Lauren and buy it loafers.
    I think we'll just name it "It" for now. I love Stephen King.

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  5. When we decided to name our second son Henry my mom was incredibly rude. Said she would never call him that because it was a "barfo" name. She was going to call him skipper. Umm, no.
    When he was about 8 or 10 he asked her to call him by his name, not Henner (one of my nick-names for him). She told him she didn't like his name.

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  6. What? That is just crazy, shame on her. Poor guy. Tell him I like his name. I have a very good friend, who is about to turn 9, who is named Henry.

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  7. I forgot to say that we had an acquaintance that was going to use "Danger" After I had shared my fascination with the name But when his son was born he didn't have the balls.

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  8. Hard to give suggestions in a way even if I LOVE giving names! My daughter and I give everyone and everything names. Her budgies are called Jeanne and Cooper - fits absolutely ;) The cuddly toys got names, too of course. My daughter gave all her plastic animal figures names when she was little. And she had a lot (still keeps them in big box btw). When she came to school the first thing she did was writing down all the names of her animal figures in a book. She was so serious about it. Very cute. I remember the rhino was called gingerbread ...
    So names... still hard to say. You kind of have to see the baby too and find out if the name fits. I think you can see that from the very first moment. Personally I like the names Zoe and Ivy. Zoe has become way too modern over here in Berlin, too bad, because I always like original names but not that original that people always ask how you spell that name or something like that. Thought of calling my daughter Xenobia for a while, but she is no Xenobia, she was always my Mika from the moment I knew she'd be a girl. So. Ivy might be very common in the States, don't know. In the end it doesn't really matter if it's common or not, I reckon.
    For a boy I like Seymour for some reason and Oscar and Gustav.
    If I will get pregnant again and it'll be a boy the name is set by my boy-friend and me already, won't tell that one. So I can easily let out Oscar, Seymour and Gustav ;)

    Another funny story about Germans refusing to pronounce a name the way the child/parents want it to be pronounced: In the toddler group I was visiting with my daughter sometimes back then there was a mother called Anna Phoebe. Anna is pretty international, no problems pronouncing that one, but although she actually wanted to get called Phoebe, cause she liked that name much better, she forgot about that and let everybody call her Anna. I asked her why that, cause Phoebe is a good name in my opinion, but she complained that the people in Berlin just would not pronounce it that way [feebee] - THEY all say it 'foebe' - can't even write it the way the Germans say it, cause the oe/รถ doesn't exist in English... Anyway: Pronounced THAT way the name sounds terrible, I agreed.
    So, why are people so reckless and ignorant? It's not really that difficult to pronounce a name the right way... (it doesn't even has a 'th' in it which is hard for some non-English speaker ^^)
    Just sayin...

    Sorry, got lost again. Names. I love names :)

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  9. Sorry to bug again ;) but there is a German song by a guy called "Funny van Dannen" and he sings about things and giving it names, called "1000 things":
    Johnny was a butter cookie, it believed in love, but it was eaten, that hurt
    Heidi was a caravan who loved the mountains, but its owners drove to the sea
    The things are desperate, life is not nice,
    a cookie can't cry, a caravan can't scream

    ... and then it goes on about Tony the kitchen knife, Helga the telephone, Billy the scotch tape and Renate the chewing gum
    Very funny song!

    Ok. Guess I really said everything about names now.

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  10. We named our son Cal, simple right - the nurse after delivery came in and said Cow?- i shit you not - in waiting rooms we would here carl, kyle - and its not an abbreviation its just three little letters. So next pregnancy kitty for a girl and then it was going to be harry for a boy until we were watching tony hawk and this little kid comes running up with a black eye and he goes oh thats riley - well that was it for us a kid with a black eye is up to something fun - so its cal and riley but i really wanted to use kitty

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  11. Cal is fantastic, I actually like Clark- I'd have to call him/her Sparky, for the "Vacation" reference.
    Riley is sweet, it's weird how names just click, it's like a switch. We've got a boys name, but no girls name- so fingers crossed baby has a penis.

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  12. "Cow ", ha... Oh man, I'm still laughing. How ridiculous.

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