names

[metaphortunate]

Naming babies is hard though. Rocket spent several memorable hours as No-Ass McGee. (He has no ass. He is a tiny little frog baby, just like his big brother was. Now, of course, the Junebug is an enormous plump meaty toddler. When we change his underwear or diaper we silently marvel at dat ass. Was it really that small once? How many sausages have we fed this boy?) Rocket is also sometimes known as the Magneto Burrito because he spends a lot of time swaddled and squinting pouchily up at me over my boob, looking really unnervingly like a tiny Sir Ian McKellen.

Comments

[jae]

Did you not have a name picked out ahead of time, then? How interesting! Can I ask why?

-J

[metaphortunate]

We did what we did the first time, which is, we had a list of names, and we sort of held them up to him and asked ourselves "Does he look like a Magneto?" "Maybe? I dunno..." and sort of sat with them for a while.

Funnily enough, the Junebug's real name wasn't even ON our list. I am not really sure how it happened. He just looked like a Junebug. Rocket's name was on our list, at least.

Also, we did not know whether Rocket would be a girl or a boy, so we had to have a list of girl names and boy names.

I confess that I think our girl name options were slightly better. :P I'm quite pleased with the name we chose, though. Just like the Junebug's, it is unusual, but EASY TO SPELL.

[wild_irises]

Every parent I have ever spoken to says girl names are easier.

Congratulations on Rocket's arrival! So glad it's easier for you this time. I can't wait to meet him!

[metaphortunate]

He is a cutie! We will have to figure out a way.

[serene]

I propose that wild_irises and I carpool in my car to meet you when you're ready. Purely out of selflessness, you understand.

[cahn]

Heeeee, this reminds me of E; we had a list of names when we went in to the hospital, but she would probably still not have a name except that they told us we had to fill out the birth certificate before we left the hospital. With an actual name. Such tyrants they were :)

[metaphortunate]

It turns out you don't actually have to! There's no legal requirement! It's just that if you leave without naming the kid, the birth certificate people harass the hospital workers afterwards, so they really really want you to.

[jesse_the_k]

Mazel tov!

Ready to be a labor organizer? :,)

I'm meeting an increasing number of Jeremys and Christophers and Ryans who are female-bodied. And certainly Ethyl and Shirley and Nevin have been given to male-bodied. Not to mention my own example.

They say that boys suffer more with female names than girls with male names because heterosexism.

Just, please, no Jayden.

[metaphortunate]

I would have LOVED to find a good gender-neutral name that didn't sound weird and WASPy as all hell with my last name, but we just weren't able to. Same problem with most nature names, which I otherwise love.

Ethyl would be a hilarious name to give anybody.

No. No Jayden. Brayden, Aidan, Cayden, etc., etc....

[veejane]

I vaguely suspected Joss Whedon's real name was Jocelyn till I found out otherwise. Alas, I think the era of male Jocelyn, Evelyn, and Marion is now completely past.

I'm a little surprised at how gendered nature names are, but I guess the ones I think of as suitably ambiguous are also the ones that aren't commonly used as names: Ash, Birch. I know of two male Rowans (both British), but am pretty sure I know of female ones too. You could get into birds (Robin! Heron!) or the Latin names for flowers (Aster! Crocus!) but things get outlandish from there.

(If you named your child Aquilegia Passerine, I will love you forever.)

[tam_nonlinear]

My mother, the veterinary pathologist, once opined that Lucillia serecata was a lovely sounding names and it was such a pity it was the taxonomic name of a species of blow fly.

[veejane]

I am partial to the hoopoe, Upupa Epops, but I don't think any human child could survive the third grade with a name like that.

Still. Upupa Epops. It just makes me happy to say it.

[amaebi]

Now, please consider Upupa Epops Jr.

[metaphortunate]

I will have to do without eternal love. We named our child something he won't spend his life spelling.

(Well, the first name. Can't do much about the last name.)

[kate_nepveu]

Hee. We had so much trouble with names that we had only one suitable option left by the time labor came around.

Aww, tiny squinty baby!

[loligo]

because he spends a lot of time swaddled and squinting pouchily up at me over my boob, looking really unnervingly like a tiny Sir Ian McKellen

I can totally picture that. *g*

[veejane]

My sister had a last-minute crisis of names about a week before birth and ran most of the candidates past me for her second, the (arma)Dillo. [Cognomina for his ultrasound picture.] And I almost had him named Idris Evergreen Lastname! How did this not come to pass, I ask you!

(Ambrose was my second choice for middle name. It is dignified, I tell you!)

She settled on something firm and uncontroversial, and the least hapless family surname as a middle name. It is possible that my outlandish suggestions pushed her firmly out of any controversy. (However, I was also the euphony tester, resulting in no children named the equivalent of Bobby Lobby.)

Babies are great! Almost as great as not being pregnant any longer! Congratulations on both states of affairs!

[metaphortunate]

It is dignified. I like it. :)

Yes - not being pregnant is THE BEST.

[lovepeaceohana]

EEEEEE BABY!! Congratulations to all of you <3333333

And yeah, names are hard. Naming our second was harder than our first because we wanted their names to sound similar - which didn't exactly happen, but hey, we tried. Middle names were unreasonably difficult to suss out.

[metaphortunate]

Thanks! :D

[wordweaverlynn]

Much love for the Magneto Burrito and all his fine family.

[metaphortunate]

<3 :)