Names are a great part of who we are, do you like yours would you change it?

As a child I often heard my Mom talking about how she chose my name, it was between two. One an obscure unusually name, and the one she gave me, that was one of the most common names the year I was born.  I guess familiar and safe applied to her the most in the end. She started a pattern with my name and after discovering the pattern, after a few kids, she decided to continue it.  All of my Mom's oldest kids, the ones over 30, only have 5 letters in our first names.  She had to greatly distort one of my sisters names to make it in compliance with her pattern.  She named her three youngest daughters totally different names but with a new pattern, all three long K names with the same exact middle name, now isn't that hard to have any individuality being triplets.  Funny where are minds take us when we are naming our progeny.  My adult children all have the same initials, MLK.  Mom once told me since all your kids have the same initials why don't you put all three of their initials on their sock, she thought a moment and remembered that wouldn't work.  My grandkids all have the initials of E, K or R, funny how as kids they didn't like that they had the same initials but all of their kids have the same first initials. 

I was born just a little to early to be of the hippie era.  I am glad that I didn't have to be Rowen Apple,  River, Freedom or Tomorrow's Sunshine.  I do think that plain and ordinary fits me much more than something odd and out there would have.  My two little girls, I had a hand in naming them.  Yogie, I got to give her her middle name, it is shared by myself and my mother as well.  Booboo, I got to influence Goofy and came up with Booboo first name and assist in her middle name.  I didn't change either name when Poppie and I got to adopt them.  I did change the spelling of Yogies, and thought long and hard about shortening Booboo's but in the end we just changed both of their last names.  We decided that their middle and first names were part of who they were and the their last name had always been our last name, as we had not used their biological dad's name once they moved in to our home, so that was their true last name.

I love to names, and like with other words, or historical events, love to study them in detail.  I contemplate why some one would choose the names they do for their kids and pets.  I think that so many people choose names on a whim or for no reason but that they like it and that's ok.  God guides our hands when we name our children because in the end we get the name we were supposed to have.  I do think it is funny when people who pick names, for no apparent reason, get a child that personifies the meaning of the name they were given, and the parent struggles with consequences of their not knowing what the name meant.  Like when little William, is determined or resolute, well duh that is the meaning of the name, and stubborn is in there too. Names are so much fun and they have such depth in their meanings.  Think before you names your daughter Sassy or Gabby.  Faith, Hope and Charity have big meanings as well. So in the end naming your child can be a big responsibility so, why not, just name them the name you do because you like it, it is your right.  They have to be called it the rest of their lives not you.  I would think the if your last name was Hogg you shouldn't name your twin daughters Ima or Youra, that would be cruel, and was.  Names are so much of who and what we are.  Nicknames will come and go in your life, or maybe they let you change a name you can not abide that your parents just loved in the moment.  Poppie once though Gertrude Sue was the greatest name, well Mokie doesn't like her name, she doesn't like names that can be both boy or girls names and hers is, but she is really glad I didn't let Poppie name her Gertie.  So she does like her name, a little.

I think you should be proud of the name you have, someone loved you and thought that that would be a perfect name for you, and in the end they were right and it influenced greatly who you are.  Now if Bubbie could just get a name, before she arrives, I am sure she would be happy.  Mokie and Son are still not all that worried or decisive yet, it is after all 9 whole days before she needs one.... tomorrow.