Friday, January 26, 2007

What's In A Name?

Surfer Girl is trying to name their baby.

She doesn't know if they are having a boy or a girl yet. She says she's been having strong "boy vibes", but she wants a girl. Obviously, as long as the child is born healthy, everyone will be grateful.

But, back to names. Surfer Girl will have a sonogram in about two weeks that, hopefully, will reveal a healthy child and also will give her a peek between the legs. Either there will be an appendage or there won’t. This information will make SG and her DH’s decision considerably less confusing…maybe.

A name is something that you will live with all your life, most of it (God willing), as an adult. But you will probably hate it (and your parents for giving it to you) when you’re a teenager.

What does your name mean? Does it have a family history, religious, or ethnic reference; maybe you were named after a famous person or fictional character? Sometimes your name can have multiple meanings as Junior Mint’s name does. His name is, first and foremost a religious name, it means “bringer of light”, and is also the name of a famous heroic fictional character. There’s also little chance that other people will ask “what?” or “how do you spell that?” when he tells them his name. Teachers don’t pause and say, “I hope I don’t mangle the pronunciation of your name….”.

A name can build confidence. A person should be proud to put their name on a business card or a job application and feel confident they will not be discriminated against before they ever have the opportunity to meet you face to face.

Personally, I have seriously wondered about the monikers some celebrities (and no doubt their copycats) have inflicted upon their children. These people must think it's cute, funny, unique, individual or they are just mean, ala Johnny Cash: A Boy Named Sue. Regardless, these children must chart a different course in life. Those that are the children of celebrities have the advantage (among the associated disadvantages) of money to insulate them. Those of average folks have to fight it out and it’s often not pretty. I can’t tell you how many runaway kids I used to work with who had “unique” (or “trendy”) names. Bless their hearts.

I have enormous respect for the task ahead of SG and her DH in the next 3 ½ months as they make this very important decision. Kokomo and I had agreed on Junior Mint’s first name before he was born, but didn’t decide on his middle name until after he was born. Sometimes it takes seeing your child breathing in your arms to know the right thing to do.

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