A Rose By Any Other Name...

Names are a funny thing. We don't get to choose them ourselves (normally) thus we are stuck with whatever nonsense our parents pin on us and then we turn around and do it to our own offspring. There are so many things to consider when choosing a name. Do you want traditional or unique? How about spelling? Do you want Tiffany, Tiffani or Tiffanee?  Is the name you are considering one that will grow with the child? Will KiKi work not only for your four year old but also when she eighty? Or should she be saddled with Ethel from birth? Will the name you give her today compliment a married name or will she end up a Stormy Weather or a Golden Graham?

Or what if you marry a man named Joshua and you have a brother named Joshua? I did that, and after I married my Josh I started calling my brother by his first and middle name. To differentiate, see? One afternoon, ten years into this arrangement my brother and I were having a lively discussion when, after using his old/new moniker he tells me, "I hate it when you call me that!? Why do you call me that?"

Uh, cause I sleep with  Joshua.

What if your mother's name is Dianne and you marry a Diana? My husband did that. It has always been mildly annoying when people call me Diane, but after I married Babe, it was downright conflicting.

"I am Diana Davidson."

"Dianne Davidson?"

"No, Diana. Dianne is my mother in law."

"So, Dianne with two n's?"

"No, Diana with two a's."

"Dianne."

"Di-an-ahhhh. Diana."

Little did I realize, when I named my oldest, what a debacle I was creating for her. It wasn't until she was four months old that I realized there might be a problem. Her name is Jacey. My cousin asked if she could hold my baby, P.J. Oh snap! I didn't see that one coming.

Nor did I realize how hard it would be to spell. I've seen:

Jacie (almost right)

Jaycee (not quite right)

J.C. (wrong)

Then there's the difficulty people have when saying it.

"Jay-cee."

"Jacey. Like Stacey."

"J...C..."

"Like Stacey."

"Jay-cee."

One of her friends helped clear up the confusion when she told her mother, "you don't say Dar-by, you say Darby." That cleared it up better than I anything I'd tried.

Here's another. My youngest daughter is names after a song. My mother in law asked me no less than ten times how her name was said. Ten. Times. Her middle name is Merai. This child told me a few years ago that she thought I just didn't know how to spell Marie.

I should have named all of them Ann.