Growing up, I was called a lot of names... but it’s not what you may think. I wasn’t picked on or called anything derogatory. I just wasn’t always called my own name by- gulp- my own mom. A lot of times, she would run down the list of my siblings’ names before she finally got to my own name (all with the intention of calling for me). And when you are one of four kids, that takes a while.
“Michael!”
“McKenzie!”
“Alex!”
“LAUREN!”
A few times, the dog’s name even got thrown out there (and should I even mention that one of those times was after the dog had died?). Eh, that was bad. We usually laughed about it afterward and I can’t recall ever being offended by it. I knew my mom knew who I was and it was stress talking when the mix up occurred. I also knew lots of other parents that managed to mix up their kids’ names even when they only had two kids (which makes me think, how in the world do the Duggars do it with all those J names?!). Of course I swore that I would never do this when I had kids, but I’m sure you know what happened. It only took having two children before the name mix up occurred! I currently have three kids: Luke, Sam, and Jonah. But any given day, if you were to hear me call my kids, you might think I had a fourth child named Lu-Sam. It happens all. the. time. I aim to speak to the middle child and I start using the first’s name. Or vice versa. I look him straight in the eyes thinking to myself,
“I know your name. It’s a good name. I picked out that name. I love that name.”
and then out flies the other son’s name that’s also good, that I also picked out, that I also love. What’s even worse is when I start out saying the right name for the right child and then switch mid-name into their siblings’ name (what’s that about?). Thankfully, my kids often have the same reaction to my silly parenting faux pas that I did with my mom when I was growing up. And we can all thank my husband’s allergies for the fact that our family remains pet-less, which means there are less names to run through when I’m trying to call a child!
There’s a lot of advice out there to help you come up with that perfect baby name. Standard stuff like aiming for a name that has good flow with your last name and considering the meaning of a name before choosing it and yadda, yadda, yadda. But I tell you what, here’s something they don’t tell you. When choosing a name, consider what the first syllable of that name sounds like mashed up with every other name in your family. Because, if you’re like me, you’ll say it a lot!