Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Name Name What's In A Name?

Tony, who is a friendly and not at all rude Korean (he informs me that most are rude AND own sushi bars) asked me this question on my formspring.me page:

I like your kids' names. What are the stories behind them? Because if I ever have a kid, I want to name him/her something awesome like Jake and Gyllenhaal. Gyll for short.

'Loretta' Rose

Rose is my oldest daughter and Rose is actually her middle name. Yes, I'm one of those annoying parents who have to remind teachers, doctors and the like, 'Yes her first name is Loretta, but we prefer to use her middle name Rose and she usually only answers to that name.'
'Loretta' is after my mom because I love my momma. And not because I felt the urge to kiss her ass. Not at all, or in the least...nada, no reason to...nope.

Rose's are my favorite flower and is my favorite smell, red is my favorite color and I liked the Don Bluth cartoon A Troll in Central Park and I assumed that Rose would look just like the blonde and chubby Rosey in that movie because my last two siblings were blonde and chubby.

I was wrong. She had black hair and black eyes and was tiny and skinny.

Olivia Marie

I've told Olivia's name story in another post here.

Maxine Jane

After being overthrown by my ex in the incident we'll refer to as 'The Darling Episode', I decided I would name my third child anything I wanted to. It wasn't till after I had her and named her that I came up with the name Indiana Sue (Indy for short!!!!). But what's done is done and I really love the name Maxine Jane. I wanted something cute and almost unisex like 'Samantha', cause I love names that have cute nicknames. Jane is my favorite girls name. I used to name my dolls 'Jane' and characters in things I write and hide in computer folders named "Grocery Lists and Such" are always named 'Jane'.

Elijah Christopher

I wanted to leave Elijah's naming up to Jeremiah...since I had already named three children and he had not. We originally decided to name him 'Jeremiah Kincaid', but somewhere along the way we were decided against it. One day, in our 7th month of pregnancy, we were on our way to a state park to hike, i.e. walking along trails, and we stopped for coffee. That's when the name came to me. Elijah sounds like Jeremiah, but starts with a 'E' (like Erin, duh). Jeremiah loved it and we decided to name him 'Elijah Christopher(Jeremiah's middle name) Lyle' we dropped the Lyle right after his delivery (sorry Pappy...like he can read this in heaven. That wouldn't be very blissful, would it?) so his name wouldn't be too long.

And that's it. Other contenders for Rose's name were Estella and Elisabeth. If any of my daughters were boys I would have named them Henry, after my favorite writer (Ten Cents to the person who can name that writer!). We had a girls' name picked out for Elijah and obviously didn't end up needing it, Hollis Kathleen.

16 comments:

Tony said...

Oh my...my question resulted in a blog post?! I feel so honored!

I like that you used "rude" instead of "the assholes of Asia." It just seems so polite and professional.

Now that I know the story of where Elijah's name came from, I feel a little stupid that I didn't see the connection with Erin and Jeremiah. It should have been common sense! Sigh...

Great post, and your kids are awesome even though I don't know them personally. They seem awesome because they have awesome names.

Steam Me Up, Kid said...

Loretta Rose! That's beautiful. You can name my first baby, if I ever have one.

Henry James?

Thoreau?

Steam Me Up, Kid said...

Also, again with the post title. Very clever.

miss. chief said...

Holy crap, have another girl so you can name her Indiana Sue. I just died inside when I found out that name existed and hasn't been used. DO IT.

erin said...

Tony: 'assholes of Asia' is a little piece of blog history making. It needs to be copyrighted and put on t-shirts.
Thanks.

Beckerino: You're first guess was absolutely right! ! !
Henry James. I owe you some moulah it seems...

Missy ChooChooHead: I know! It is possibly the best name of all time. Hands Down Awesomeness.

Logical Libby said...

I like the idea of a formal name and a nickname. People often comment though on the fact Meg's name is an acronym. I think it's clever.

Alyson said...

I wish I would have put more thought into naming Hannah, but what's done is done. Besides, she recently changed her name to "Princess KneeKnack". I don't know.

I'm with chiefy. I love the name Indiana. Except for the part where she's telling you to pop out another kid. Just make one of your kids name one of their kids Indiana. Voila!

Liz Woodbury said...

LOVE your kids' names. and i am obnoxiously critical of other people's children's names. i mean, silently critical. inside my head.

Vic said...

I'm still mad about the Darling Episode, because Darling is a perfect middle name for a girl - it's so Peter Pan. You have a knack for names.

If you want, you can name our Christmas frogs. But you should hurry because the cats ate all the frog food, so they may not be around very long.

John Pender said...

Damn. I guessed Thoreau too.

mo.stoneskin said...

I'm with that Steam Me Up, Kid. Really like the name Loretta Rose and Loretta in particular is really cute.

kara said...

i really couldn't ever begin to settle on something as important as a child's name. now dog names....i've got a list of those on my whiteboard at work. though i don't plan on having one of those either.

author guess: milan kundera? don't tell me i'm wrong!

Ms. Moon said...

And me? I was going to guess Henry Miller. Ah yah.

Samantha said...

Jarrah's middle name is Rose! Clearly we do not call her that, but I do love the name.

I have never heard my name described as "cute and almost unisex." Usually I hear "blowsy British porn star" or "also the name of my Dalmation."

But I'm glad you like my name so much. :)

mylittlebecky said...

awww, kiddies! rose was my grandma's name (not tulip like i said in my lying blog that lies). i love that name! LOVE, LOVE!

Anonymous said...

You have beautiful children!

Secretia