The Name Game

So what's in a name? Names are part of our identity, names have a history, meaning and tradition as well as creativity. Names are also a source of pride for the parents naming their child. When I was growing up in the 1960's, I went to grade school with a lot of girls named Debbie. I wanted to be a Debbie also but as I grew older and less insecure I realized Joan was not a bad name to have. If you look back in history, you'll see the different names that were popular for that particular time. Since the two new grandbabies are coming into the world within the next few months, the subject of names has come up quite a few times. I think Jimmy (my son) and Allison have decided to name their little boy after my sweetie, whose name is Michael but I have also heard them talk about naming him Cameron. Whatever name they choose, I'll love that little guy to pieces. And my daughter Melissa and Jamiel just found out they are having another girl so they are trying to figure out what to name her. I read that whatever name a parent chooses for their child, he or she will grow into it and become it. So I bought a baby name book for them to look at, this book has over 100,001 names in it and I think they'll be able to come up with something. Anyway this book has a few different categories that I've never seen when I was picking out names for our children and I thought I would share a few with you. Okay so here we go, I'll just share a few from each category. My all time favorite category is the Mob names one. For boys in that category there's Vito, Fredo, Luca and Carlo. For Mob girls there's Moxie or Apollonia. Or you could name your baby after Disney characters, like Aladdin, Nemo or Gaston for boys or Ariel, Lilo or Aurora for girls. Or you could name your child after a car like Lexus, Bently or Dolorian for boys or Porsche, Audi or Chevrolet for girls. Or how about those Greek gods and goddesses? For boys it could be Zeus, Apollo or Pluto and for girls it could be Aphrodite, Persephone or Venus. They even have names for kids from firearms, barflies, optometrists, surfers rednecks..........you name it and they have a category in this book. I think most parents put a lot of thought and effort in naming their child so I don't sit in judgement on any name. I personally like the names from the 1880's and 1890's, well not all but I do like many of them, like John, James & Joseph for boys and Emma, Elizabeth and Anna for girls. Okay, I'll stop now but I could go on and on with this, it's kind of fun. So tell me what's your favorite name and why do you like it? Have a great Monday! This is Debbie, I mean Joan signing off. :-)