You see, there are several big naming opportunities in life: a new baby, a new business, a new pet, a building if you're very rich and charitable, and last but not least, a new blog. If you don't choose carefully, you're either stuck with the name...or you get into multi-name territory. Life just seems too short for one name.
I always thought it was interesting to hear what some of my friends called their grandparents. And then there was me. I called one grandmother "mum" and one grandfather by his first name, Wally. Again, a little strange, but perfectly normal to me.
Over the last few days I've really been thinking about the big naming opportunity for my parents as they enter the grandparent role for my brother's little girl. D-Man just calls them by their first names, which I am forbidden to list in this blog. I was fooling around making up bizarre grandparent synonyms during last week's visit.
"There's your hoho,'" as my father is holding her. "Is that your memoo smiling at you?" when my mom is cooing. We're finding it really funny and aren't sure if the young lass will refer to them as grandma/grandpa or any other number of combinations. But they better be careful and assertive about the name of choice. Once it's been selected, it's there for good. (Unless I have anything to do with it.)
When D-Man came around before I was in the picture as stepmom, one of his grandmothers wasn't ready to be called "grandma," and insisted on being called "Mema." At age 10, D-Man was greeted with a surprise from her: "I want to be called grandma now." And she was really, really serious.
What the hell? How can you recondition a kid who has fondly known you as Mema his whole life? Bizarre. Pure bizarre. We've rebelled against these wishes and have encouraged him to continue calling her what he feels comfortable calling her. Good grief.
Care to share any of your interesting selections as far as the big naming opportunities go? Do you love the name of your blog? Ever thought about changing it? What did you/do you call your grandparents?
9 comments:
Great topic! I had one grandma and a nanny and poppy. My father absolutely did not want to be a poppy. But my niece was the first grandchild and she came up with it on her own, despite his calling himself grandpa to this day. All his grandkids call him poppy. I'm not sure what I want to be. My kids have 2 grandmas; one is grandma B. I kind of like Mema. Or Mimi. NOt Nanny!
Aren't families weird? My father's mother was Grandma Doll and my mother's parents were Butch (grandmother) and Ray.
My parents go by Grandmother and Grandfather. My MIL goes by Grammy B. Often times grandparents get stuck with whatever the grandkids call them.
LOL, I'm with your grandma on this one, but it's not like she can do anything if D-man won't cooperate.
If I had to change my blog name, I would probably give it a number. ;-)
I called my grandparents by their proper names, "Grandma" and "Grandpa." I don't think I even knew their real names until after they all died.
You're right, it's odd how we unquestioningly assimilate names. My maternal grandmother was "Grandmom", my paternal equivalent was "Gram" and my wife is "Grammy" to all our grandkids.
I never had a grandfather I could address, but based on posthumous stories my paternal one would probably have been called "Sir". My other one never spoke more than a few words of English so I never spoke to him at all, even when he was sober.
My oldest grandson has always addressed me in a manly way by my first name,while the other five lovingly call me "Grandpa".
A family we know in the southern Alabama/Florida panhandle region called the grandfather "PeePaw". Never figured that one out, just used the name like everyone else when referring to him.
Names of things are important.We should pay more attention to them. We'd be in bad shape if Adam, aand later Linneas hadn't figured out what to call the plants and animals. They'd all be just "that thing".
I like making up names for things like products.My biggest success:I once named a corporate division after the company had paid a lot of money to an agency that used computer programs to create a lot of(unacceptable) names.My reward:personal satisfaction topped off with an internal grin because giving me recognition would have been an admission to wasting money with the agency guys.
A friend helped me name my blog and as of now I'm very satisfied with it.
Have you ever tried to come up with an alternate name for yourself? Not an alias but a new name you could happily live with forever? That one has stumped me over the years.
When my parents became grandparents they were renamed Grannie and Pa - it suits them perfectly. Culture comes into it to: the Greeks have 'Yaya' and (grandma); Jews have both Hebrew and Yiddish options - 'Safta' and 'Saba' are grandma and grandpa. These are all titular, honorary names - but not without affectionate connotations.
I find this interesting. My friends tried to steer their grandchild to tradtional grandparent names for them, and she came upon it herself to call my friend Mockit and her husband Bap. Now all five grandchildren call them that!
i started smiling when i read your first sentence about having more than 1 name for Flanders. It immediately reminded of the range of names that parents have for their children. For example, did your mother ever call you by your First and Middle names together? That was a sure sign that I was in trouble.
Some of my dogs have nicknames, but not all. And all of them share sweet terms of endearment too. Makes me wonder how they can tell who I am talking too when I say sweet puppy? I guess they all assume that I am speaking to them directly, that that's ok with me.
:)
What interesting food for thought, hmmm. I guess I'm not that 'adventurous' when it comes to names. The only story that I can remember to share now is the following: I work with some of my family members and it's kind of funny how I have to call them by a more official name when there are other people around and then when we're not at work or just alone in a room I would usually instantly switch to calling them what I've always called them since I was a kid lol
I love the name of my blog! My mother-in-law wants Addison to call her Mamaw (not memaw), I think it's terrible and sounds kind of redneck - I call her grandma whenever I show her picture to the little one. I'm going to be assertive on this one. hehe
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