Thursday, July 28, 2005

Baby Name Game

Baby: My sister-in-law's due date was 3 days ago. She's not happy about that. It's hot and she's not sleeping and is taking care of a 2 year old during the day. Honestly though I hope Jen is late. I'm really anxious to see my son for the first time, but I could use every extra minute I can get to finish the house and prepare for the new addition to our family.

We do not have a name yet. I will not be able to choose a name. Our baby will go nameless. At least that's how I feel in this moment. My wife is pushing to name him after me. Michael was the most popular name for boys for over 30 years. It has declined while names like Jack and Max have increased, but naming your child after yourself seems self indulgent. Will he feel he has to live up to something? There are plenty of good names out there right? I just can't think of them.

Lots of people name their kids after people they admire. I've searched hard and come to the realization that I don't admire people. I don't admire things in general. I tend to admire specific things. I admire a painting, but not the artist because the artist did a bunch of crap in their later years. I admire a song or an album, but not the singer/songwriter because he was also an alcoholic that beat his wife. I admire a film but the director was a one hit wonderchild that hasn't put anything worthwhile out in 8 years. I just don't admire people. I see the flaws. I don't judge or hold their flaws against them. I just don't respect them enough to name my child after them.

One caveat is that I admire my Dad but he hates his own name and doesn't want us to burdon our child with his moniker.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike, the end is at hand - name him after your best friend Ken!

Anonymous said...

"Change your name!!"
That's what my dad (Richard John Weis III) hollered at me when he got the bill for my (Richard Daniel Weis) MSU parking tickets made out to "Richard Weis". What the hell anyway?

LMR said...

There's something about "Little Mikey" that kind of grates on my nerves, but I have known a lot of really good Michaels in my day, so it's not a bad choice at all.

With all the other stuff you're worried about right now, I think you can continue to procrastinate this a bit. If Jen is doing all the research for you, you might be lucky enough to just get to "buy in" at the end of the day. And we all know that the sooner you have a baby name, the more time all your friends and family have to dissuade you from naming the baby your chosen name, causing you sleepless nights of anxiety. Better to just tell folks that you're still working on it and let them do the freaking out. It will all come together in the end.

The "divide and conquer" theory of marriage: "You get the whole house ready for us to move into and I'll research good names for the baby." Seems like Jen's getting the long end of the stick to me.

Oh yeah, she actually has to birth the baby too, I guess. :)