What's in a Name?

When I was pregnant, Louis' grandparents asked us to promise to give the twins "normal" names, with "normal" spellings.

"We think people today are giving their kids "weird" names," said grandma.

I guess they are not fans of all the unique names and spellings that seem to be the trend lately. They needn't have worried.

I'd like to think we are old fashioned when it comes to names. But maybe it's just that we're boring, but all the names we considered for the kids were not made up, unusual, or unique. Both Louis and myself have names, while not unusual, use the less popular spelling and know what's it's like to always be spelling your name for someone.

The joke is that the names we chose are so "ordinary" that in all the classes, playgroups, etc. we attend, we have yet to come across another Sarah or Matthew. A friend's four year old daughter said she had never heard the name Matthew before when she asked his name. I guess we could of gone with Math'u or Cer'ah, but we are not that imaginative. Or we didn't want to condemn our children to having their name misspelled for the rest of their lives.

When my friends and I talk about naming our children, I like to share some of the "gems" in eighteen years of teaching. They said I should post a list. Of course there are the names that might seem unusual but are not as far as the family's ethnic or cultural background. I'm talking here about names that have no ethnic or cultural connection. Included are those that had a funny reason behind the name.

These are the actual, legal names on the birth certificates.

In no particular order:

- Narfy

-Otayah

-Festus

-Jazz America

-Princess (mother's name was Queen)

-Tom (a girl)

-Denver, Sydney, Jose (3 brothers each named for the city where they were conceived)

-Chee Chee

-Holy, Holly, and Angel (3 sisters, mom liked Christmas)

-Junior (not really a "junior" because it was not his dad's name)

-Ximena, Yolanda, Zephyr (parents wanted siblings that names started with X,Y, and Z)

-Ebyam ("maybe" spelled backwards)

-Sandy Pond

-Czar Alexander (dad liked Russian history)

-Meshach, Abednego, Shadrach (brothers who win "most biblical" award)

-Starlight

-Zoltan

-Rainbow

-Windy (born during a tornado)

-Zen

-Ranger

-Happy

-James Bond (and he didn't even go by "Jim")

Any others you can think of?