Do you call your kid's by their given name? All the time? If you're anything like me, you don't. I just think it's a little ironic how we spent SO much time debating and deciding what to name our children before they were born, and now that they are here, we hardly EVER call them by their actual names.
When I was pregnant with Zander, we had his name picked out pretty much from the start. The only thing we discussed was how to spell it. We decided on Alikzander. I really thought we would call him "Alik". But, for some reason, once he was born, that just didn't seem right. So, we settled on Zander, and that's been his name ever since. His teacher calls him Alikzander (I think she sees it on the list and gets confused), and when I hear that it just sounds odd.
For baby number #2, I came up with the idea for her name before I got pregnant. There was a contestant on Survivor (I know, I know) who was named after her grandmother. The grandmother's name was Helen, and her name was Neleh. I thought that was just cool, so I thought it might work for my kids. I couldn't use my mother-in-law's name because it would just be child abuse to name them Anoz. (sorry, but it's true.) So, I tried my mom's name and came up with Adalen. I thought it was very pretty! I guess I figured that we'd call her Ady, but we had to decide how to spell it. Weird that it's just a nickname, and we have to choose the spelling. I went with A-D-Y mostly because I wanted to be different. *shrug* I guess if she doesn't like it, she can change it later in life.
With our third child, my husband told me that we HAD to stick with the pattern. All of our children's names start with an "A" and have a "Z" somewhere in the name (Ady's is in the middle name - she is named after both grandmothers after all). We had a few ideas. I really liked Alizbeth, but it didn't quite seem right. We finally came up with Ainzlee (again, we messed with the spelling). I chose the middle name, May, because it is a family name on BOTH sides, which is just cool. My grandmother's middle name is Mae, and I almost went with that, but, my grandfather's mother's maiden name is May, and Brandon's great-grandmother's middle name is May as well, so it works.
I didn't think that Ainzlee would have a nickname. There isn't one that just jumps out with that name. But, leave it to us to give her one. We've started calling her "Miss May". I don't know why. But it's stuck. Variations are "Baby May", "Missy May", "My little May"... you get the idea.
Anyway, it's just funny how much thought we put into "official" names for our children, but the nicknames some how just stick without us thinking too much about it.
5 comments:
This is really funny. I guess we haven't had that trouble. AJ's name is Alan but I knew we would call him AJ, no trying to mess with the spelling. And Noble, well the only nickname we have for hime is 'boble' because AJ can't say his name right so we just started calling him 'boble' all the time. You guys are funny in the way you spell your kids' names but it makes them unique and that is good.
Whe we were coming up with names we tried to think of all the horrible nicknames that might come up later in life. For Hallie we almost named her Daria Rhiannon but it sounded too close to "diarhea". So she's Hallie Rhiannon instead.
Zane was originally going to be Hansen but Curtis didn't want anyone calling him "Handsome Hansen" so he's Zane Hansen. What's funny is when he was born Curtis told his dad what his name was but due to a poor connection on the phone his dad thought he said "Vain Handsome". He even told Curtis' aunt that was his name. So now all Curtis' cousins tease us about naming our boy "Vain Handsome".
Hannah is "Banana" and Grace just gets her full name ALL THE TIME (She's naughty. Alot.). The other day Zane wanted her attention and said in a stern voice "Grace Ellen Gardner".
Anywyas, I'll quit rambling now....
Yep, funny how that works out. I was readying back in my journal not so long ago and made an entry about your family (not long after Zander was born) and I referred to him as Alik - when I read it I thought "WHAT?" but I remember you planning to name a son Alikzander and call him 'Alik' it seemed that was your plan since high school!
Your nick names are much nicer than ours Oran is "my sweet Bugga-Boo" (or just "Bugga-Boo") Canton is "Buggars" and Tate is "Tater," "Tatey," or "Smarty Pants."
But they go by their given names everywhere else.
we did the opposite. we purposely chose names that are hard to make nicknames out of. i want to give them the name they will go by so if i ever want a kid with a nickname, that will be the name on the birth certificate :D i do like your kids' names, they are very unique yet names we've all heard before! i love it!
I always wanted a "nick name" growing up, so I really wanted to give my kids names that would allow them to have a "nick name". With the first three it really didn't happen. We call Jacob "Jay" at times, and Ryan "Ry" or "Ry-Ry" and Kaylee "Kay" but how lame are those?!?!? I had pretty much given up with my attempt and just named Alyssa because I liked the name...SHE definetly has several nick names. I call her "Lyssi-Lu-Who" "Lyssi" "Lyssa" "Lyss" and "Alyssi". I think it's totally cute to have a nick name for your child--but you are right. With as muchg time as we put into coming up with the PERFECT name...it is a bit odd :P
Post a Comment