What's In A Name?

Do you like your name?

Yesterday The Brainiac asked me which of my kid's four names I like the best.

I told her. The Brainiac demands honesty.

But it got me thinking back to the agony involved in choosing all of my kid's names. I have kept the lists of all of the names I liked that I handed off to The Entrepreneur, who usually crossed off all of them.

He was opposed to any name that belonged to someone he knew in high school, someone he dated or someone he hated. That was a lot of names.

When choosing my kid's names, I tried to come up with something a little bit unusual but not weird. My goal was that there would never be a child with the same name in their first grade class.

It was tough picking those four names. I can't imagine placing more rules on the selection process, like requiring that all of their names begin with the same letter.

I'm sure you know families like this. And I'm not picking on families with three or less kids whose names begin with the same letter. It's possible that was an accident.

If there are four or more, you know it was on purpose.

When I was growing up in good old Sioux Falls South Dakota, we made a little game out of families like this. Who could say the names of the kids from oldest to youngest? Let's start with the Brick family. I can still do it.

Kevin, Karn, Kent, Kurt, Karen, Kathy, Konnie, Kaija

You just knew they ran out of options at the end. Kaija was my friend and she really hated her name. One time we looked up the meaning in a baby name book. It said: Fat Baby Seal.

O.K. now the Carlsons. That's an easy one.

Monique, Monty, Mia, Meagan and their darling dog Mindy

But the first letter stipulation isn't nearly as cruel as naming the child after something that has to do with your profession. Just because I am a garden designer, doesn't mean I have the right to name my girls Rose, Daisy and Petunia. And what would I have named my poor son? Thorn?

But that craziness happens. I went back home for a high school reunion. A guy I used to date and is now selling high-end cars was handing around pictures of his newborn baby Lexus. Her sisters Mercedes and Cadillac were so excited to meet her!