Friday, December 31, 2010

The Name Game

When I was pregnant with Charles, we had no discussion on the subject of names. None. Zilch. Nada. The names we chose just were. This time around, we are going to re-use the girl name we had picked before, because we still love it and because the girl in our family wasn’t born. The baby girl Cook with that name did not exist, maybe still doesn’t exist because I could be carrying another boy. I have no qualms about re-using a name, though I know some people think it is unacceptable. I look at it like this: in our family, there is a baby girl waiting to be born. She already has a name. End of story.


But the boy name. Oh, ho ho. We do not yet have another boy name. We had ONE, before, and now we have to search for another.


Tony is very little help in this endeavor. The poor man has tax season looming large on his horizon and everything that comes after that might as well be a million years away. So, he claims he need not even think about names, not even consider names for our potential baby boy, until we hit May.


I, on the other hand, have been scouring name books for THE NAME. THE ONE. OUR BABY BOY. To that end, I occasionally suggest names to Tony, and the conversation goes like this:


Me: “What about Graham?”

Tony: “Nope.”

Me (incredulous): “Wait, you’re not even going to think about it for a second? Not even going to roll it around in your brain and pair it with potential middle names and our last name to see if it fits?!!”

Tony: “Nope.”


So, you can imagine my surprise when I suggested a name last night and he hesitated a moment before he said, “Hmm, maybe.”


But this isn’t a story about the one “maybe” we have on our list at the moment. This is the story about the next name I suggested.


Me: “What about Gregory?”

Tony: “Nope.”

Me: “Well, then, how about Gregorovich?”

Tony: chuckles (I was going to write “giggles,” but Tony doesn’t really giggle.)

Me: “We could call him ‘Vitch’ for short.

Tony: …

Me: “And when we teach him our names, we could say, ‘What’s my name, Vitch?’”

Me: “And if he’s about to do something bad, we could say, ‘Don’t make me come over there and smack you, Vitch!’”

Me: “And if we had twins, we could name the other Stefanovich and then we we saw them together, we could say, ‘What’s up, Vitches?!’”

Tony: uncontrollable laughter


With parents like these, I’m not sure our kids wants a name we pick. Any suggestions?

3 comments:

K Schimmy said...

Whatever... Tony does TOO giggle. I have heard it.

You don't even want to know the hell I have dealing with Rick's suggestions. They are always made-up names that sound like World of Warcraft characters. I have no help at all.

Anonymous said...

HAHAHA

Wow! I can so relate on many levels. Janet and I took forever on names for our kids. Mostly as a result of all the really mean people we have had the misfortune of meeting over our life. In fact we could agree on exactly 5 names. Which is why we had to stop at five. :p ;)

But I have to say, you really need to at least consider Vitch as a middle name! :D

I am going to side with you on the Tony giggle issue. Not that I really know mind you. But I have to believe it is worth some points. :D

Stephanie said...

:) Awesome. His nickname with be Vitch no matter what...