Say My Name, Say My Name

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Ah, the naming of your baby.  (Cue "The Lion King" music!)  This is such a huge deal.  Think about it.  Your kid is going to have their name their whole life.  Your name is a reflection of who you are.  You don't want to give them some crazy name that they will have to shoulder for all of their existence.  (There are a ton of bizarre names out there but here are some of the worst.  Actual names: Apple.  Blanket. Pilot Inspektor. Audio Science. Seriously?  Seriously?! Ah, so tragic. Poor kids!)


When I was pregnant with J, my sister-in-law, K, was pregnant with her third and we were both having boys.  K told me not to tell her our baby name.  She said if we told her our name then she would want to use it. (However, K did keep trying to guess our baby name each time we talked. Crazy much?! I am chalking it up to pregnancy hormones.)


After thinking about it, it did seem like a great idea to keep the baby's name a secret until he made his debut.  Now, we originally decided to keep it a secret because of K's suggestion.  But, after a while, I was glad that we did not share our choice of name as it would have been seen as a opportunity for everyone to share their opinion.


See, once the baby is here and you tell people the name, people say "That is such a cute name!" or "I just love that name!"  If you tell them your chosen name beforehand, people say "Oh, I knew someone in 3rd grade with that name who picked their nose." or "My ex-husband who is in prison has that name."  (Awesome. Thanks for the input.) So, the more people asked, the more I was glad we kept it a secret.  We liked the idea so much that when I was pregnant with L we kept his name a secret too.


We would call L 'LT' for 'little tiny' while I was pregnant.  Unbeknownst to everyone, his name actually starts with those letters.  (We are tricksy like that!) So, when he was born everyone was marveling at our trickery for using his actual initials the whole time.


Now, I adore L's name.  We thought long and hard over what we wanted to name him.  But, here's the deal.  He has about 50 other names too.  It started with "Sweet Baby L".  "Actual name LT." "Initials LT." Then, "Mr. Big Stuff.", "Mr. Stuff.", and "Mr. So Big."  One day, we added "Sweet LT."  Then, it became "Sweet T." (Yes, I have gone a tad bit overboard with all the nicknames.  See, I admitted it.  The first step is admitting you have a problem.)


I fear he will go to school and will always be marked absent because he will never answer to his name. I imagine the teacher calling out, "Mossey.  Mossey.  Mr. L Mossey?  Are you here L Mossey?"  All the while, L will be sitting there thinking, "I wonder when the teacher will call my name? I haven't heard him call 'Sweet T' yet".


Well then, "Sweet T" it is!  I'll take "Sweet T" over "Pilot Inspektor" or "Blanket" any-day.