| When my son was born, I was just about to turn 32 | | | | vengeance, trying to be creative and poetic. |
| and his father was 56. Most people figured that was | | | | Day and night, the mister played with middle names. At |
| our reason for not having any more children. Wrong! I | | | | one point, he had a list of about sixteen names that he |
| could not fathom having to go through picking names | | | | dearly loved. And that's when he got the bright idea |
| again. What a disaster. It almost wrecked our marriage. | | | | that our child should have all of those names. That's |
| We did agree that a name was very important. We | | | | right. He wanted to saddle our child, if it was a boy, |
| agreed that it was possible for name to motivate a kid | | | | with a "poem" of names. Actually, the way the mister |
| or make him/her the object of ridicule on the | | | | spoke that list of boys' names was quite entertaining |
| playground. We agreed that we should find out what | | | | and unique and poetic, but I could not imagine giving a |
| meanings were behind any names we liked or | | | | small child the burden of having almost twenty names. |
| selected. And we even agreed on a few girls' names | | | | The mister thought that it was a perfect idea. Our |
| and that we would wait until the baby arrived to select | | | | bickering became a daily thing, and I truly thought we |
| one of those names. | | | | would be divorced before the child was ever born. |
| Although we did not have any scientific evidence, we | | | | When the day came that I was to have labor induced, |
| both wondered if having a name that was considered | | | | the mister was ecstatic. He brought the camera along |
| strange or weird would affect the personality outcome | | | | to document the birth, and when I ended up having an |
| of a child. | | | | emergency c-section, he still took pictures. He wanted |
| I shared some facts about girls that I had known in my | | | | the bloody pictures to be a part of our family album, |
| youth. Candy became a dancer. Laura was a librarian. | | | | and another fight ensued. |
| And Elizabeth became an attorney. You really had to | | | | The next morning, before the mister could arrive at the |
| wonder if the names their parents chose had any | | | | hospital, a shy woman crept into my room. She |
| impact on their career choices. | | | | wakened me and asked if my husband and I had |
| While we did share a love of just a few girls' names, | | | | selected a name for our son. |
| we could not agree upon a boy's name. Actually, there | | | | Since the mister was not there, I gave her the first |
| were hundreds of names that we both loved. And that | | | | name he and I had selected, plus two middle names |
| was the problem. | | | | and our last name. Instead of a list of almost twenty |
| The mister spent hours each day pouring over books | | | | names, our son had just one more name than usual. |
| about baby names and their meanings. Some were | | | | When the mister arrived, I told him that the birth |
| strong names. Some names showed integrity. Others | | | | certificate would not have held all of those names. I |
| were names that sounded wise. There were names | | | | also explained that there would have been a far |
| that evoked smiles and others that brought back good | | | | greater chance that the birth records would have been |
| memories. | | | | wrong had we insisted on giving our child so many |
| Finally, we did agree on a first name, if our baby was a | | | | names. Both of these were partially true. |
| boy. But our problems were not over. The mister had | | | | Does a baby become the meaning of the name |
| worked with computers when they took up entire | | | | given? Or do parents know from the start what traits |
| buildings. When our son was born, though, the mister | | | | their child will have? |
| was a piano bar player. He wrote and sang and | | | | Our baby's name meant ruler, and he certainly acted |
| played piano and was actually very creative and | | | | as if he knew that. From the very start, he tried to run |
| artistic. That was our problem. He went about | | | | the show. Actually, after 22 years, he still tries. |
| choosing the middle name(s) for our child with a | | | | |