Sunday, March 8

A totally irrelevant, non-problem

I took another test this morning. Not Pregnant. I felt that the digital test was laughing at me. I hate those, but I can't obsess over evaporation lines the next morning.

I know it's still early. I don't test again until Wednesday morning and Husband has hidden the one remaining test from me. At my request.

So here's my non-problem. Husband is a third, as in Husband the third, as in his Dad is Husband Jr. (not that he's my third husband). Husband would really like our first baby boy (I'm not even pregnant!) to be Husband the fourth. I don't so much.

I did at one time, but that's changed. After talking to his mom and finding out that she wishes she hadn't named Husband his name. And then talking to my father-in-law and his attitude of not caring about it, has all led me to reconsider my initial acquiescence to the fourth. Here are some things to consider:

1. Husband goes by Trey, a common nickname for the thirds, around his family, and his real name around his friends. He told me when we were dating that only his family called him Trey so I was to call him his real name. So I did. And that is who he is to me now. This was his critical mistake. He should've asked me to call him Trey.

1.5. I think insisting that your son is named after you is a tad narcissistic. Okay, not a tad, a LOT.

2. I don't want to call my husband and son the same name. I don't want the name that I sometimes say in fits of passion to be the same name I use to refer to my son. Anyone agree? Can I get an amen?

3. There ARE. NO. GOOD. nicknames for the fourth or for Husband's real name. And the middle name is eastern-European weird.

My proposed solution is to keep the middle name, and use a different first name. I even like the name of his great-grandfather. Husband just looks thoughtful and sad when I bring up my brilliant and fair solution.

Readership, weigh in. Both of you.

4 comments:

  1. Yeah, I'm a bad one to ask about falling in the family line on naming my kid. My husband isn't even the 4th and we're naming a kid the 5th. The line goes to the first male of that generation with the same last name. Like that's quick to explain to people. And we can't just say "the first male of each generation" because there are already 8 kids in that generation but they are children girls who have changed their last names. If there wasn't a good nickname for 5th (Quint), I bet I would have serious problems with the name. Seeing how we have 4 living (insert name here) in the family right now, half of which married in, oddly enough. At our wedding, there was one other living relative and one or 2 friends with the same name and I meant to have a picture of just all of them, but forgot.

    5 generations ago, (so the story goes), the family name was either the 17th or the 23rd or something ridiculous like that. They started the numbering over because they thought that it looked too snobby for America. My hubby would love to go back to the original numbering, but I've said I would need ironclad genealogy reports from extremely reputable sources before I would even consider that. He's got 7 months. Tick tock.

    But you can use the snobby American tactic!

    Recently, hubby has said that being a 5th will help our son get dates (like that's a good reason!?) Wouldn't you be interested enough in a 5th to talk to him for a few minutes about it? he asked. Maybe....if he wasn't a snot about it. But once I found out that he was neither loaded or prestigious, that would wear off, and maybe be a turnoff because he tried to appear that way. For me, in college, if a guy in a suit was at a party talking about his name, I'd head the other way. Same way I avoided the really fantastic, model quality good looking men in college. Generally, they knew they were good looking and that was unappealing. Also, our poor 5th might get caught up with some dumb gold digger who's just convinced that the 5th means there's some big money hidden somewhere.

    Also, our cousin who is the 4th, lives far enough away from his dad that no one really knows he's a 4th. My hubby goes to visit and refers to him as (name) four and everyone squints and says "who?" You know (first and last name). Oh, him! Yeah. He's a fourth? Really?

    Now that I think about it, do I really want to name my kid something that when we dedicate him to the church, I have to explain 15 times that day, half the time with me rolling my eyes? Hmmm... You wouldn't have to explain 15 times because you're not naming your kid after a cousin, uncle, and grandfather.

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  2. My son is Trey, and he's the third. I told hubby I would NOT call my son Duane...or Arhur. I think Trey wants to name his son after the line of Duane Arthur's. Then again he's not even 12 and hasn't even ever kissed a girl yet unless you count Miley Cyrus posters.

    I like IV for a nickname for the fourth. And to me there is something significant about family nemes. We've used them for most of our kids.

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  3. Does that mean that you'd call the boy IV AKA Ivey? I'm not sure I could call my darling boy Ivey. But Ivan, maybe. That would be a stretch. If the name seven is so popular now, why not just call him Four. Make sure you don't shout it so it sounds like "FORE!" Or maybe Forrest. Quatro, or what about the first two initials? My child will be GD which makes people think you're cussing.

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  4. I was with you until you started worrying about the name-saying during fits of passion. I think that's your weakest argument, and I know you like to have your arguments well lined-up, so I would advise saving it for last.

    Has Trey talked to Mr. Princess Kate about this? Because Mr. Princess Kate has all kinds of good reasons not to name a child after yourself. Social security mixups, competition for logins on websites, etc.

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